The Fitzroy Football Club was founded in 1883 as part of the VFA (Victorian Football Association). The team became a foundation member of the VFL (Victorian Football League) in 1896-97. In the 1980s teams were formed in New South Wales, South Australia and Western Australia and in 1990 the VFL became the AFL (Australian Football League).
The death of the Fitzroy Football Club by Russell Holmesby, as the subtitle of the book states, is 'the story of Fitzroy's demise in the words of the men and women who lost their club'. The book focuses on the years from the 1970s to 1996 and contains excerpts from interviews with former players, coaches and administrators from the club as well comments at the time from AFL administrators.
Basically the AFL wanted to reduce the number of Victorian teams in the competion and increase its prescence in other Australian states. South Melbourne had already transferred to Sydney to become the Sydney Swans and after looking at a number of merger options involving several clubs the decision was made that Fitzroy would merge with the Brisbane Bears to become the Brisbane Lions.
Since then many supporters transferred their allegience to the merged team while some now support other clubs. Many have decided not to support any AFL team. The Fitzroy Football Club currently has a team playing in the Victorian Amateur Football Association so the name lives on.
Fitzroy as a VFL or AFL team may be gone but has not been forgotten with references to the club often occurring in novels including the Jack Irish series by Peter Temple.
Fitzroy Football Club – Wikipedia
Australian Rules Football - Britannica
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