For Fitzroy people Round 20 1983 was a moment of extreme emotions. Of the very high and the very low. Of celebration and devastation, with Team of the Century pair Bernie Quinlan and Warwick Irwin front and centre.

Fitzroy sat 2^nd on the AFL ladder under Robert Walls with a 13-6 record, a game behind Essendon and percentage ahead of Hawthorn as they travelled to Whitten Oval to play a 9^th-placed 7-12 Footscray.

They were right in the premiership mix in a season in which they had sat on top of the AFL ladder for what would prove to be the last time. And not just once – 10 times from Rounds 5-11 and Rounds 13-15.

They had got over a surprise hat-trick of losses to lowly St.Kilda, Carlton and Sydney in Rounds 15-16-17, which had cost them top spot, and beaten 8^th-placed Geelong at Waverley by 62 points and 7^th-placed Melbourne at Junction Oval by 86 points in Rounds 18-19.

It had been a busy time for the League, with massive Round 19 celebrations as Richmond’s Kevin Bartlett became the first player to reach 400 games and Carlton’s Bruce Doull became the 16^th player to 300 games.

Round 20 would see another huge milestone, with adopted Fitzroy favourite Quinlan returning to his one-time home ground at ‘The Kennel’ to become the League’s 17^th 300-gamer. And, although it wasn’t known at the time, Irwin would play his last game.

Quinlan’s 300^th was enormous. Only once in club history had Fitzroy celebrated a 300^th game of their own, when Kevin Murray reached his triple ton in 1973, and ‘Superboot’, in his sixth season with the Lions, was the next best thing.

It could even have been a double celebration, with Quinlan having kicked 95 goals through the first 19 rounds of the season on a scoresheet which 39 years later makes unbelievable reading. Having not missed a game, he’d kicked 5-7-2-2-3-10-3-8-4-3-4-9-7-3-4-5-6-5 on his way to Fitzroy’s first 100-goal season and a runaway Coleman Medal win.

Fitzroy were strengthened by the inclusion of Mick Conlan, Glenn Coleman and Garry Sidebottom, and by quarter-time the ‘party’ was in full swing. They led 9-3 to 2-0. But it ended as quickly as it began. Fitzroy kicked an abominable 2-10 to Footscray’s 6-4 in the second quarter and went downhill from there.

With Simon Beasley (6 goals) and Ian Williams (5 goals) dangerous up forward, the Dogs out-scored the Lions 4-2 to 1-2 in the third term to cut the margin to seven points and ran away with it 7-5 to 2-0 in the last to win 19-11 (125) to 14-15 (99).

The turnaround to win from a 45-point deficit at quarter-time was the biggest in Bulldogs history, the 8th-biggest in AFL history at the time, and still ranks equal 11^th-best all-time.

Quinlan was held to three goals to finish the game two short of his ton as Garry Wilson was Fitzroy’s best with a team-high 25 possessions and equal team-high three goals.

Irwin, who had played 206 games with Fitzroy from 1970-80 before a shock defection to Collingwood in 1981, was happy just to part of the Quinlan celebration. After he played in the 1981 grand final with Collingwood he missed the entire 1982 season and was sacked by the club. He was thinking his career over before an invitation from coach Walls to return to Fitzroy in 1983.

Sadly, it was a comeback that didn’t go well. Irwin missed the first seven games and struggled through Rounds 8-9-13-17-18, averaging 6.1 possessions and kicking two goals. He’d finally hit some form with 19 possessions in Round 19 but was injured early in Round 20 and never played again in a sad full stop to a brilliant Fitzroy career.

So, it was a disappointing day for Quinlan, Irwin and Fitzroy. The shock loss cost the Lions dearly. Despite good wins over finals contenders Collingwood and also-rans Richmond in the last two rounds they had to be content with third spot on the home-and-away ladder, a game behind minor premiers North and percentage in arrears of Hawthorn.

They ultimately went out in straight sets in the finals, losing by four points to eventual premiers Hawthorn and by 23 points to eventual beaten grand finalists Essendon.

Had they beaten Footscray in Round 20, as was so widely expected in Quinlan’s 300th, they almost certainly would have finished top of the ladder on percentages, and it could have been an entirely different story.

Curiously, the Round 20 curse struck Fitzroy again in 1986 when the club played finals for the last time. Wins in Rounds 17-18-19 saw them 5^th on a 12-team table an 11-8 record before another inexplicable loss to the team sitting 9th in Round 20. Except this time it was North Melbourne in Matt Rendell’s 100^th game.

Although they won the last two home-and-away games to finish fourth a real premiership chance would pull up short. They beat Essendon by one point and Sydney by five points in their first two finals before losing to eventual premiers Hawthorn in the preliminary final.

FITZROY’S LAST ROUND 20 GAME

Talk about football weird … this was it. In Round 20 1996 Fitzroy played their third-last game against the Brisbane Bears, their soon-to-be merger partners.

A meagre 6469 people turned out at Princes Park for what was another torture test for a playing group walking the football ‘gang plank’ after confirmation of the merger 44 days earlier.

Caretaker coach Alan McConnell made three changes after a Round 19 loss to St.Kilda, including Brad Cassidy, Matthew Manfield and Robert McMahon for the injured Jeff Hogg and Danny Morton, and Mick Dwyer, who had played his last game for the club the week before.

The ‘old’ Lions got the soon-to-be ‘new’ Lions at a bad time. They were 3^rd on the ladder with a 13-1-5 record after having beaten 2^nd-placed North Melbourne by three goals at Princes Park in Round 20.

When Brisbane led 13-8 to 8-5 at halftime it was at least respectable but a 10-2 to 2-6 third quarter blew the visitors’ lead out to 77 points before a final scoreline of 29-13 (187) to 14-16 (100).

The total was the Bears’ 2^nd-highest all-time and their highest in Melbourne. And 26 years post-merger it is still Brisbane’s highest score in the football capital, with the club’s best post-merger  26-14 (170) against the Bulldogs at Marvel Stadium in 2003.

The 29 Bears goals were split between 12 goal-kickers, with Jason Akermanis kicking five to go with 25 possessions but missing out on the Brownlow Medal votes. They went to best afield Michael Voss (27 possessions, two goals), Matthew Clarke (13 possessions, 18 hit-outs) and Shaun Hart (26 possessions).

Clark Keating and Craig McRae kicked four goals apiece in the Bears’ Round 20 blow-out, and Justin Leppitsch three, while Adrian Fletcher (27 possessions) and Marcus Ashcroft (26 possessions) also found plenty of the ball.

For Fitzroy in what was Stephen Paxman’s 100^th AFL game, Martin Pike (25), Matthew Primus (24) and Brad Boyd (23) led the possession count, while John McCarthy kicked four goals and Marty Warry three goals.