Stats
Playing Career
1978-1986 – Fitzroy
Games
189
Goals
576
Playing Honours
Brownlow Medallist – 1981
Fitzroy Leading Goal Kicker – 1981-85
VFL Leading Goal Kicker – 1983-84
All Australian – 1983-84
Fitzroy Team of the Century
Lions Life Member
AFL Hall of Fame
Fitzroy Greatest Team (1944-93)
Fitzroy Night Premiership Player – 1978
Victorian State Representative (3 times)
Coaching Career
1995 – Fitzroy
Games Coached
19
Summary
'Superboot'.
No one word better sums up goal-kicking superstar Bernie Quinlan than the popular nickname he inherited at Fitzroy.
Quinlan was a wonderful player at Footscray, but it wasn't until he made the move to Fitzroy in 1978 that he won the acclaim as a genuine powerhouse of the VFL.
A centre half-forward by trade, Quinlan was moved to full-forward later in his career and caused opposition defenders a world of headaches.
Equipped with arguably the most lethal right boot our game has ever seen, he made an art form of comfortably kicking goals from anywhere within a 60m range of the big sticks.
Quinlan reached the peak of his powers in the twilight of his career, winning the 1981 Brownlow Medal at the age of 30, finishing Runner-Up in Fitzroy's Best & Fairest award over three successive years, and leading the Club's goal-kicking in every season from 1981-1985.
In 1983 he became the only player in Club history to boot over 100 goals in a single season – and matched that feat again the following year.
With 576 goals from his 189 matches with Fitzroy, Quinlan's name will be forever immortalised in Club folklore.
