Farewell to Fitzroy

West Coast had played Fitzroy in their 13^th game in the AFL in 1987. They won by 72 points to begin a head-to-head record that went WWLLLWWLLWLWWW to the end of 1995.

Fitzroy were doing it tough. They won only one of their first 13 games in 1996 to sit at the tail of the AFL ladder. But little did they know that worse was to come. Much worse.

On July  4, 1996 it was announced by the League that Fitzroy would merge with the Brisbane Bears to become the Brisbane Lions. One of the foundation clubs of the League in 1897 would be no more. Not in their own right.

Reeling from the news, Fitzroy lost by 66 points to Essendon in round 14 and in round 15 packed up their 1-14 record and travelled west for a Friday night assignment at the WACA Ground with the 10-4 third-placed Eagles.

West Coast cruised to a predictable 20.11 (131) to 9.9 (63), with Dean Kemp (34 possessions and a goal), Chris Mainwaring (29 possessions and two goals) and Peter Matera (25 possessions and a goal) taking the votes. Peter Sumich kicked five goals.

Who was the Fitzroy coach? And why was he and is he an unusual AFL figure?

It was Alan McConnell. And for the second time in 12 months he found himself as caretaker coach.

Originally from Terang, McConnell had played 37 games with Footscray from 1980-82 and in 1995, when Fitzroy sacked Bernie Quinlan, he coached the last three games of the season.

In 1996 he’d served as the right-hand man of South Australian Mick Nunan. But after the announcement of the merger Nunan walked away and McConnell was thrust into the top job again.

Later he coached at Geelong and at the AIS before he was the first appointment to the GWS Giants.

After a variety of roles with the League’s 18^th club he coached the inaugural GWS women’s team in 2018-19, thereby becoming the first person to coach men and women at senior AFL level.

Sadly, he was a victim of the Coronavirus Pandemic, released by the Giants as part of the football expenditure cutbacks.

The Fitzroy side that played West Coast for the last time in round 15 1996 included seven of the eight players who would head to Brisbane via the merger – Brad Boyd, Jarrod Molloy, Chris Johnson, John Barker, Nick Carter, Shane Clayton and Scott Bamford. The other one was Simon Hawking.

Also playing for Fitzroy that day was Matthew Primus, who refused to head north and instead became a premiership ruckman and later senior coach at Port Adelaide, and Martin Pike, who joined Brisbane after a stint at North Melbourne and became a triple premiership Lion.

Playing his 26^th and second-last game for Fitzroy was Trent Cummings. He was the third member of his family to play for Fitzroy after great grandfather Joe Johnson, a 55-gamner from 1904-06 who is recognised as the first Indigenous Australian to play in the AFL, and older brother Robert, who played one game in 1990.

Cummings, originally drafted by Fitzroy at #6 in the 1993 draft, was picked up by the Eagles via pick #57 in the 1996 draft but was plagued by knee problems and played only two games in 1997.

Cummings was one of nine players to play for both clubs. Dean Turner, Craig McGrath, Michael Dunstan and Dale Kickett had also played with Fitzroy before heading west, while Wally Matera, Joe Cormack, David O’Connell and Kevin Caton played with Fitzroy after playing at West Coast.

Brownlow vote trivia

Five Eagles players have polled votes in the Brownlow Medal in their first game for the Eagles – Michael Brennan (2), Phil Narkle (2), Peter Wilson (2), Ilija Grgic (2) and Sam Mitchell (2). Six others have done so in their second Eagles game – John Annear (1), Mark Zanotti (2), Brett Heady (3), Michael Collica (1) and Nic Naitanui (1). And who?

It was Michael Gardiner. In round 15, 1997 the #1 draft pick played his second game against Port Adelaide at Subiaco, picking up 14 possessions and 11 hit-outs and kicking three goals for one vote.

Dean Kemp, with 34 possessions, earned three votes in what was the AFL debut of Port and Hawthorn premiership player turned Gold Coast coach Stuart Dew.

Another caretaker coach

West Coast came up against another caretaker coach against Brisbane at the Gabba in round 15, 1998, with Roger Merrett having taken over from John Northey after Northey was sacked in the wake of a 71-point loss to Fremantle at Subiaco in round 11, in which Michael Voss had suffered a badly broken his leg.

There was no sympathy for the ex-Essendon and Brisbane strongman. With Andrew Williams making his debut the Eagles came from two points down at halftime to win by 27. Peter Matera, Dean Kemp and Guy McKenna took the votes.

From the debutants of 1988

Of the 88 players who made their debut in the AFL in 1988 only eight played 250 games. Who was the quickest? None other than the Eagles’ Guy McKenna.

McKenna, who debuted in round 1 of the Eagles’ second season in the AFL, became the first Eagles player to reach 250 games for the club when they met Richmond at the MCG in round 15, 1999.

With a year-by-year game count of 18-20-26-26-12-21-25-23-22-20-22 from 1988-98, the dashing Eagles half back flanker was almost a season quicker than Mick Martyn, who got there in round 11 of a 2000 campaign in which he played 23 games.

Then followed Wayne Schwass (21/00), Matthew Knights (12/01), Paul Broderick (13/01), Steven Febey (14/01), Alastair Lynch (1/02) and Robert Harvey (9/02).

McKenna’s 250^th game coincided with Chad Fletcher’s first game, but there was no celebration. After leading by 16 points at half-time they could manage only 3-3 in the second half to the Tigers’ 10-6 as Matthew Richardson kicked six goals for the home side.

The old 30

In lots of ways football has gone back to the future during the Coronavirus Pandemic. 

Like with the 30-possession mark. A haul of 30 possessions in the shortened games of 2020 is more akin to the 30-possession game of 20 years ago than the inflated individual possession counts of recent seasons.

In three rounds this year only nine players have topped 30 possessions. Only Andrew Gaff has done so twice, while others have been Dylan Shiel, Jack VIney, Ed Langdon, Patrick Cripps, Luke Parker, Scott Pendlebury, Steele Sidebottom and Lachie Neale.

It’s now a real badge of honour. Just like it was in 2000 when Andrew Donnelly joined the 30+ Club.

Donnelly had had to work for it. A Subiaco product originally drafted by Sydney with pick #50 in the 1992 National Draft, he waited 12 months before heading to the Harbour City but played only in the reserves before returning to Subiaco in 1995.

After winning the Subiaco fairest and best upon his return he got a second chance in the AFL with the Eagles via the 1996 pre-season draft.

He had 25 possessions and kicked four goals to pick up three Brownlow Medal votes in his third game in 1996 when he chosen the Eagles’ best first year player ahead of Rising Star winner Ben Cousins.

But Donnelly had to wait until his 62^nd game in round 15, 2000 to top 30 possessions in a 32-point loss to Essendon at Docklands in which Phil Matera kicked four goals. And six games later he played his 68^th and last gam