http://m.news.com.au/AFL/pg/0/fi995529.htm
AFL, say sorry to Fitzroy April 3, 2012 12:00AM
IT'S time for the AFL to say sorry to Fitzroy fans.
A senior league official should step forward and apologise on behalf of those who played a part in killing off their footy club in 1996.
The gesture won't bring the Roy Boys back, but it would help bring closure to the estimated 200,000 Fitzroy faithful who lost their barrackers' soul 16 years ago.
Imagine the emptiness you would feel if the team you love was suddenly taken away.
While many of the Fitzroy fan base eventually accepted the Brisbane "merger", tens of thousands more remain disillusioned and lost to the game forever.
Not even a triple-treat of premierships for the Brisbane Lions from 2001-2003 could convince the worst of the broken-hearted that the spirit of Fitzroy lives on in Queensland.
The death of Fitzroy - a foundation member of the VFL - was a tale of lies, treachery and backroom deals.
But don't take it from me.
Speak to people like Dyson Hore-Lacy, SC - Fitzroy's shattered president when the merger was forced in the face of unanimous opposition from his board.
"What the AFL did to Fitzroy was treacherous and many supporters are still feeling it today.'' Hore-Lacy told the Herald Sun.
"They regard their club as having been taken away from them.
"I have seen about six AFL games in about 16 years. Why is that? I suppose it's a combination of reasons but I am really not that interested (anymore). I have moved on, but if I look back it still hurts.
"There is a belief that if the AFL commission had been the same as it is now, with a policy of supporting all clubs instead of a policy of merging clubs, things could have been very different.
"Fitzroy got no support at all from the commission and that had been the position for a number of years. With policies such as priority draft choices and financial support for poorer clubs, which have been in place for some time, Fitzroy could have rebuilt quickly.''
Hore-Lacy estimates about half of the old Fitzroy supporters, estimated at about 200,000 at the time of the merger, turned their back on the Brisbane Lions.
Asked if the merger still hurts those people today , Hore-Lacy replied: "I'm sure it does. I am sure that a lot of the old supporters have no AFL club at all now."
And the merits of an AFL apology?
"Absolutely. It would be a great gesture. People are apologising for much less that what the AFL did to Fitzroy. The deal facilitated by the AFL was against the unanimous determination of the Fitzroy directors who were elected to represent the members and supporters, and the North Melbourne board.
"We had actually signed a formal agreement with North Melbourne on the 4th July 1996. We went to a commission meeting to have the deal ratified and in the blinking of an eye, on the same evening, the commission had managed to do the deal with Brisbane. No proper notice, no nothing. We were not even consulted.''
Brisbane should be congratulated for the manner in which it has embraced the Lions legacy since the merger, with the F.F.C insignia carried to this day on the back of the playing jumper.
But there's still an emptiness inside many of those former Fitzroy fans that a simple "sorry'' would go along way to making up.
So say sorry, AFL.
- Michael Warner
