BOOK REVIEW: Review of "FITZROY", by Dyson Hore-Lacy (2000)

Fitzroy farewells fans, 1996

I could introduce this review by saying this is the book the AFL does not want you to read. However, at the end of the day, the AFL is now far too powerful as a Stalinist authoritarian regime in the Australian sporting landscape to care about websites such as mine or books such as this one. This book is absolutely depressing from the viewpoint of a traditional football supporter and from the viewpoint of a person who admires fair-play and decency on the football fields and in the corporate boardrooms. It discusses the last few years of Fitzroy FC as an AFL club and then discusses in detail the demise of Fitzroy and the enforced merger with Brisbane Bears. It is written by Fitzroy's then President, Dyson Hore-Lacy, four years after the events in question. It chronicles the proposed merger with North Melbourne to form the North-Fitzroy Kangaroos which was thwarted by the AFL at the last minute because it preferred the Brisbane merger for "strategic reasons". We see here the AFL coming to power as an authoritarian body with new corporatist-managerial type leaders who had taken full power over from the club presidents based on recommendations contained in the Crawford Report. At the end Hore-Lacy and his board were rendered even more powerless because creditor Nauru Insurance Corporation put the club in receivership and called in Michael Brennan as administrator (not the West Coast footballer). Brennan apparently was bullied by the AFL and he broke his fiduciary and legal duty by not accepting the North Melbourne merger even though North had offered to match Brisbane's offer in all respects and the North merger was the one accepted by the Fitzroy directors and preferred by most Fitzroy supporters. Initially it was to be called North Melbourne-Fitzroy Kangaroos with a mixed jersey. Then North supporters objected and finally the compromise North-Fitzroy Kangaroos name was accepted by both parties with the word "Melbourne" removed. This is an interesting name as it is open to multiple interpretations. Fitzroy FC people could have interpreted it as referring to North Fitzroy the actual suburb while North Melbourne people of course could have interpreted it to refer to the old North Melbourne club.

Home @ Brunswick Street Oval

We read of the AFL's desire to destroy Fitzroy as a club and force merger. Then we read of the AFL forcing the Brisbane merger rather than the North Melbourne merger for "strategic reasons" (as then AFL Commissioner John Kennedy Sr. said). Firstly the AFL introduced a rule giving Brisbane and Sydney access through the draft to uncontracted players which decimated Fitzroy's playing stock. Secondly, the AFL, completely unreasonably, forbid Fitzroy to play some AFL matches in Canberra, although it later permitted North Melbourne to play games in Canberra, Sydney, and Gold Coast, and allowed Hawthorn to play games in Tasmania. We read of Ross Oakley's rude comment (p. 132) that it would not allow "their worst product" (Fitzroy) to be sent up to Canberra, an offensive statement made against a foundation VFL/AFL club with eight premierships and which had made the final-five several times in the 1980s. It shows how the AFL was viewing clubs and players merely as "products for sale" in the 1990s, and it wanted to determine which products were sold in which markets. We read of the AFL's authoritarianism by continually demanding Fitzroy directors provide proof of solvency, a very difficult thing to offer positive proof of. The wishes of all the Fitzroy directors and most of its supporters to merge with North or stand-alone were completely disregarded by the AFL. The AFL cares about nobody but only about revenue dollars, marketing, vision, and the strategic plan. I urge football people not to contribute more of their hard-earned money to the AFL but to support second-tier football instead (SANFL, VFL, WAFL, etc.).

The Fitzroy Football Club still legally exists to this day. The Fitzroy Reds play at the old Brunswick Street ground in the amateur league and play in the 1950s-70s Fitzroy jersey. It is a pity that the club could not be represented at the higher VFL level and this may happen in the future. Ironically one of the terms of a possible Collingwood merger had been that Fitzroy play as Fitzroy in the reserves which now means the VFL competition. Perhaps this offer should have been accepted? While the AFL is the clear Darth Vader here, Hore-Lacy's board appeared to be genuine in its actions but was just outbullied and outsmarted by the AFL working in conjunction with the club receiver Mr Brennan and Brisbane Bears (and with the anti-Fitzroy Melbourne media in the background always ready to pounce). The club could only have held on for a few more years with yet another white knight.

Fitzroy Reds @ Brunswick St (amateurs)

However, the structural problems of moving to a higher stage of brutal capitalism within the AFL industry were always going to exist. When West Coast and Adelaide entered the competition with lots of money, supporters, members, and sponsors it was clear that the smaller Melbourne clubs would suffer the most by comparison. Collingwood, Carlton, Essendon and perhaps Richmond could compete with the bigger interstate clubs but the smaller clubs in Melbourne could not. Smaller Melbourne-based clubs today are being funded by the AFL to a significant extent. It appears that AFL policy has changed and it is no longer coercing or even encouraging mergers. However the AFL's arrogance and authoritarianism continue on unabated. Only the tactics on the ground change. The AFL's reason to see Fitzroy merge was so that Port Adelaide could enter the competition in 1997. One of the funniest parts of a depressing book is the proposed merger of Port Power and Fitzroy as the (wait for it) Port Power Lions or, as Hore-Lacy says, the "power lines".

I like the front cover cartoon picture of a lion hanging on a cross in Christlike fashion with a black-suited person with a football for a head (the AFL) shooting arrows at the lion's chest. Although I think it is usually unwise to apply religious analogies to secular contexts, I support the use of the cross here as the picture perfectly sums up the situation of the Fitzroy Football Club. The AFL should apologize to Fitzroy FC and its supporters, the vast majority of whom now no longer follow AFL but have gone across to support Melbourne Victory and / or Melbourne Storm and / or other teams in other codes. The AFL does not deserve their support or their dollars. Its behaviour was completely reprehensible. Might does not make right [by Jack Frost, 2 January 2014].