Welcome (back) to my website! Other than posting information about 1919 The Royal Domination Begins – a book I was privileged to write last year in my role as the East Perth Football Club’s voluntary historian – I’ve been a bit tardy with the updates. Writing Dreamer, Drifter, Drunk (and I still have copies available for those wishing to buy one) seems like a lifetime ago now.
Not long after finishing “Dreamer”, I decided to write a book about the Fitzroy Football Club, the team I followed with a passion in the Australian Football League (and the Victorian Football League before it). A continuous member of the VFL/AFL since the competition began in 1897, Fitzroy was forced into a merger with Brisbane after the League’s 100th season in 1996. In mathematical terms, Brisbane Bears + Fitzroy Lions = Brisbane Lions, though many still view the merger as more of an AFL-orchestrated takeover. The FFC at least lives on in the Victorian Amateur Football Association and is based at its spiritual home, the Brunswick Street Oval in North Fitzroy.
There have been several books about the Royboys, as the team was affectionately known, so finding a new angle was critical. Fitzroy’s Fabulous Century: The 100 Greatest Victories, 1897-1996 isn’t about the merger but, as the title suggests, describes in detail Fitzroy’s 100 “best” wins. While Lotto involves randomly selecting six numbers from 45, I subjectively chose 100 victories from a pool of 869 wins (it took a lot longer than your average Saturday night draw!), then ranked the “Top 100” from 100 to 1.
Some of these wins will be fresh in the minds of Maroons/Gorillas/Lions fans and perhaps AFL supporters in general (particularly if you barracked for the losing team), while others belong to days long past. Given footy is theoretically a 100-minute game with four quarters of 20 minutes plus five minutes time-on, I’ve split the 100 victories accordingly and included quarter, half and three-quarter-time “breaks” filled with other Fitzroy reminiscences.
I have good friend and Fremantle artist Paul Jacobs to thank for the book’s front and back covers. As the manuscript is currently being formatted by Steve Barwick, of All In One Book Design, I’m currently unsure how many pages the book will comprise and what its retail price will be. However, if you want to know more about Fitzroy’s Fabulous Century: The 100 Greatest Victories, 1897-1996 (including sample stories), please email me at fitzroypete@yahoo.com.au. I’ll have details about the book’s price, postage and purchase options very shortly.