On 09/04/2024 at 03:10, Go the Biff said:

The Bears were established about a decade earlier.  Played out of the Gold Coast. The Christopher Skase era.

Fitzroy was ripe for the picking. North were confident that they had the whip hand for a merger (read takeover) but the Bears under president Noel Gordon pulled the rug out from under them and the merger of Fitzroy Lions and the Carrara Koalas was instituted. 

That's the nutshell version 

It's so difficult to fathom how your club could just disappear.

When we won our flag I felt so rewarded.

Images  those years of barricking down the toilet.

  On 09/04/2024 at 03:10, Go the Biff said:

The Bears were established about a decade earlier.  Played out of the Gold Coast. The Christopher Skase era.

Fitzroy was ripe for the picking. North were confident that they had the whip hand for a merger (read takeover) but the Bears under president Noel Gordon pulled the rug out from under them and the merger of Fitzroy Lions and the Carrara Koalas was instituted. 

That's the nutshell version 

I am well aware your nutshell.

I didn't understand this "When they became the bears, my mate couldn't support them, so became a dees fan. A fully committed, passionate one too. I saw heaps of games with him. But when they became the Brisbane lions, which they should have done from the get go, he felt compelled to support them"

Fitzroy to Brisbane Bears was always Brisbane Lions from the start. 

  On 09/04/2024 at 04:09, Wizard of Koz said:

Fitzroy to Brisbane Bears was always Brisbane Lions from the start. 

No you're right -i'm the one mixing things up.

Bears merged with the lions in 1996. From wiki:

'At the end of the 1996 season, the AFL helped negotiate a deal with the Fitzroy Football Club administrator whereby the Bears took over Fitzroy's AFL license and as a condition of that deal, on November 1, 1996, Brisbane Bears members voted to change the club's name to the Brisbane Bears-Fitzroy Football Club (BBFFC or Brisbane Lions), who participate in the AFL today. The Bears played in 220 VFL/AFL matches over ten seasons, with 70 wins, 148 losses and 2 draws.'

My Fitzroy supporting mate didn't barrack for the Brisbane Lions in their first year, or their second. Was on board by their third season. Good timing too given their success a few years later. 

 

brisbane will always be the bears that feasted on the rotten corpse of ol' fitzroy

disgusting state of affairs

ross oakley...scum

  On 08/04/2024 at 23:29, praha said:

I don't mind Brisbane supporters. Their Melbourne contingency has got a grunt about them probably from the old Fitzroy crew. They bring good energy and support to their games in Melbourne. And smarter and more knowledgeable about the game than whinging SA and WA supporters.

Nah, IMO they're smarmy. 

Good football team and a reasonable bunch of supporters.

Lucky they have Dayne Zorko to mock and jeer.

  On 09/04/2024 at 00:04, binman said:

But when they became the Brisbane lions, which they should have done from the get go, after a couple of seasons he felt compelled to support them - . A knowledgeable and clued in footy supporter, who still has a soft spot for the dees.

I'm confused by this, binners. They became the Brisbane Lions at the end of 1996. Fitzroy folded at the end of 1996. So they did become Brisbane Lions from the get go.

  On 09/04/2024 at 02:25, rpfc said:

We have been boring the last two years. Fans of other teams don’t see things until the ‘narratives’ have got through or their team has played the teams in question. 

So we will come up against a bunch of fan groups that think we are just a dump it down the line, win territory team, that prefers repeat entries until we slingshot their team into Oblivion through the excellent law firm of McVee, Howes, and Rivers.

They are The Transition.

Agreed to a large extent, but I think we started this quicker transition (albeit not anywhere near as well) in the second half of 2023. When you think of our game against Brisbane in Round 18 last year, that was an out and out shoot out. Our game the following week against Adelaide was also a shoot out. And Round 20 against Richmond we showed a similar flair from front to back.

But you're largely right, the sample size for opposition fans is smaller and they're more likely to have our 2023 finals in their heads, which were forward half territory games.

  On 09/04/2024 at 06:12, Binmans PA said:

I'm confused by this, binners. They became the Brisbane Lions at the end of 1996. Fitzroy folded at the end of 1996. So they did become Brisbane Lions from the get go.

brisbane bears from 1987

brisbane lions from 1996

  On 09/04/2024 at 06:15, daisycutter said:

brisbane bears from 1987

brisbane lions from 1996

Exactly, but I see binners corrects it above.

One of my great non-Demon memories was the 1986 finals series.  I went to all three of the Fitzroy finals, the last finals series they ever played.  Knocking off the reigning premiers in week 1 in the wet at VFL Park; another close one against Edelsten's Swans in week 2 and the very last final they ever played, getting belted physically and on the scoreboard by Dipper and the Hawks, who went on to win the flag.  Parkin even now thinks that season trumps any of his flags in terms of his own coaching performance.  Their fans were such great, salt of the earth footy people.  It was a sad day when we said goodbye to old Fitzroy.

  On 09/04/2024 at 01:51, La Dee-vina Comedia said:

Do you mean they are supporters who were alive and supporting Fitzroy pre-1996? Or are they younger supporters who still hold an allegiance to the club formerly known as Fitzroy? I ask, because if it's just the former, I wonder what will happen once that group is no longer around? 

Some were kids when Fitzroy was in the league. Some of the younger ones inherited Fitzroy and have stayed with the Lions. One guy I spoke with was wearing a Fitzroy jumper which looked older than him, and he would’ve been in his mid-30s. I’m guessing it originally belonged to an older relative. It was really worn and faded, but awesome to see. 

  On 09/04/2024 at 05:59, Binmans PA said:

Nah, IMO they're smarmy. 

But I am dealing with the MCC ones...

  On 09/04/2024 at 05:59, Binmans PA said:

Nah, IMO they're smarmy. 

I find the fans who attend matches in Brisbane can be smarmy but those who attend in Vic are less so. 

  On 09/04/2024 at 00:04, binman said:

And they had some of my favourite non dees players - roos, pert, Wilson and Quinlan (one of the most consistently excellent kicks I've seen).

Interestingly I felt very much the same

+ Richard Osborne and Mick Conlan

  On 08/04/2024 at 09:19, Smokey said:

Would love an explanation on how our game style is "horrible"

I think we've been playing quite aesthetically pleasing footy this year.  

That person probably hasn't watched a Dee's game this year. Hopefully they're in for a rude shock as the Dees stream the ball forward with crisp forward entries, time and time again.

  On 09/04/2024 at 12:20, Graeme Yeats' Mullet said:

Interestingly I felt very much the same

+ Richard Osborne and Mick Conlan

"Doc" Wheildon, the Fitzroy Jakovich

  On 09/04/2024 at 06:11, Jibroni said:

Good football team and a reasonable bunch of supporters.

Lucky they have Dayne Zorko to mock and jeer.

One of tbe most annoying footballers of all time.

  On 09/04/2024 at 22:13, Dr. Gonzo said:

"Doc" Wheildon, the Fitzroy Jakovich

In lots of ways. Being completely nuts being one.

I have a bunch of friends who were mad Fitzroy supporters from the day thet were born. Some had long history of familial ties to the club. One mate has an old large b&w photo of their last premiership team with signatures below, and a few jerseys from that era, passed down through the family

They used to go on crazy interstate trips as teenagers with the cheer squad and get up to all sorts of mischief, often alongside the players.

Many of them hoped for a North merger so they could survive in some way in Melbourne city. It was widely known how poor the club was and how badly it had been run.

They were all blindsided by the Brisbane merger and furious at the AFL and Oakley. Two mates eventually became Brisbane supporters, almost reluctantly. All the rest no longer follow any team or footy at all.

I thought of them when we were at our worst around the Bailey/Neeld time, worried that history may repeat.

2021 was all the sweeter to realise we have come so far. But survival and success are more than winning one flag.

Our time is now.

Edited April 10, 20241 yr by Moonshadow

  On 09/04/2024 at 02:25, rpfc said:

We have been boring the last two years. Fans of other teams don’t see things until the ‘narratives’ have got through or their team has played the teams in question. 

So we will come up against a bunch of fan groups that think we are just a dump it down the line, win territory team, that prefers repeat entries until we slingshot their team into Oblivion through the excellent law firm of McVee, Howes, and Rivers.

They are The Transition.

I wonder how many more times we’ll all have to hear David King say the word “punish” in a Dees context before opposition fans cotton on to the narrative?