Welcome to Maroon and Blue, a web archive devoted to documenting and celebrating the history and culture of the Fitzroy Football Club.  

Known through their history - at different times and to different people - as the Maroons, Gorillas, Lions, Roys or Royboys, the Fitzroy Football Club is worth remembering for what it brought to the VFL/AFL, as well as to the broader game of Australian Rules football.  

Formed in 1883, Fitzroy initially played in the Victorian Football Association, the major league in Melbourne at the time.  In 1897 the club became a founding member of the Victorian Football League and claimed eight flags over the next five decades.  The premiership cupboard remained bare for the next fifty years but that didn’t mean the club lacked character, colour or even success over that period.  Fitzroy took the field for the final time in 1996, weighed down by a combination of its history and the machinations of the Australian Football League, intent on moving the competition from its old Melbourne suburban focus to the national stage.  

As well as making historical material available through this website, I intend to eventually pass on copies of material posted here to one or more historical archive such as the State Library of Victoria and the National Library in Canberra.  Material may also eventually find its way to the Fitzroy Football Club (still operating, albeit without a football license) and the Brisbane Lions Australian Football Club.    

I aim to add new material and update the archive regularly, as time allows.  If you want to help the site grow, consider contributing something; details are provided elsewhere as to how you can do so.  

Any comments, views and observations on the material posted here is most welcome.  And if you pick up errors, I’d appreciate knowing about them.  

This site receives no sponsorships and has no official connection to any organisation, football or otherwise.  Whatever is posted here is free and available for you to enjoy.  

As lovers of the maroon-and-blue used to like to yell at the footy, ‘Go Roys!’  

Adam Muyt

Disclaimer:  The views expressed in articles posted here are those of the individual authors.  They make no claims to represent the views of others, or any organisation, unless expressly stated.