When Ross Thornton first arrived at Fitzroy in 1975 he was told he was too short and too slow.

So the nuggety little back pocket specialist from Camperdown in south-west Victoria, who stood all of 179cm tall and had thighs as big as anyone, took himself away determined to prove the club wrong. And prove it he did.

So much so that in five years at Prahran in the VFA he did enough to earn a spot in the Prahran Team of the Century, and after he returned to Fitzroy in 1980 he played 146 games from 1980-89, was vice-captain for three years, won the 1984 best & fairest and was made a Life Member in 1989. He was a star.

But his on-field exploits were only part of the man known by his football mates as ‘sawn-offs’ and ‘dozer’. He was a man whose contribution to the Lions family extended far beyond the playing field.

A one-time accountant turned successful businessman and ever-loyal football man, he was a member of the Lions Board of Directors for a decade until he died on Wednesday aged 67 after a recurring battle with cancer. That says it all … he was literally a Lion to the very end.

With the Lions to wear black armbands in the Round 8 Gabba Qclash against the Gold Coast next Sunday night (5 May) at 7.10pm, here lions.com.au traces the wonderful career of one of the all-time club favourites.

Laurie Serafini, who also played 146 games for Fitzroy to share 46^th spot on the all-time playing list with Thornton, described his 1980-85 teammate as “just a great player”.

“We called him ‘dozer’ because he was like a bulldozer … you couldn’t stop him. He was short, with big thighs and was impossible to knock over,” said Serafini, who preceded Thornton as a Victorian-based Lions director.

“He was like Marcus Ashcroft … not too much fuss or fanfare …. He just did his job … unflappable and understated … but ever-reliable. And he got better as he got older.

“He was married young so when some of the players were going out he’d be going home. He was a bit of a father figure to the group. He was a great teammate … a guy you just loved playing with because you could always rely on him and he’d do anything for you.

Coach Robert Walls said he’d never met a more popular player at Fitzroy than Thornton. “He was universally liked and respected … he worked really hard, he was brave and courageous, and he just did his job. He was a heart and soul kind of guy … as Fitzroy as you could get.”

And why shawn off? “Because it looked like someone had come along and shawn off his legs,” Walls recounted with a laugh, having shared his own cancer battle in recent times.

But Thornton wasn’t just a good bloke. He could play. And he finished his career a part of two hugely significant moments in Fitzroy history.

In 1986 he was a member of the very last Fitzroy AFL finals side that played Hawthorn in the preliminary final at Waverley. They’d beaten Essendon by a point in the elimination final and Sydney by five points in the semi-final before going down to the eventual premiers by 56 points in what was Bernie Quinlan’s 366th and last game and Scott Clayton’s 100^th game.

And in 1989 in his last game in Lions colours Thornton was a member of Fitzroy’s last ever premiership side in the then VFL Reserves.

It was 30 September 1989. They played Geelong in the 11.10am curtain-raiser to the senior grand final at the MCG and came from 39 points down late in the third quarter to win 17-12 (114) to 16-16 (112).

The Lions Reserves, coached by Robert Shaw, surprised many by beating the more fancied Essendon and Carlton to reach the grand final, and found something special after a wild melee in the third quarter to win.

Thornton and his large group of mates, who visited him in hospital regularly in recent months, remembered it well.

A goal from Tony Woods put the Roys in front with three minutes to play, before Darren Wheildon took two marks only to kick both out on the full from tough angles. Geelong’s Paul Brown marked with 30sec on the clock and had a chance to win it but from 10m on a 45-degree angle he hit the left post.

Andrew Brockhurst kicked the ball back in for the Lions for Thornton, who had kicked a goal earlier in the last quarter and set up another one, marked near the boundary. He slowed things down perfectly, and by the time he kicked long down the line the game was won.

Fitzroy had become the first Reserves team to win a flag from fifth spot on the home-and-away ladder, replicating the feat of the Fitzroy Under 19s in 1982.

You can watch the closing moments of the grand final on Youtube.

Thornton, who played his last game alongside fellow Lions greats Mick Conlan and Leon Harris, had made his AFL debut under Bill Stephen against North Melbourne at Junction Oval in Round 3 1980 and played 15 games in his first season wearing jumper #49.

He switched to #4 when Walls took charge in 1981 and in under five years under Walls played 11-16-20-22-4 games, including three losing finals in 1983-84, and polled two Brownlow Medal votes against Carlton at Waverley in Round 12 1984.

In 1986, after David Parkin took over as coach, Thornton celebrated his 100^th game in Round 17 against Hawthorn at Princes Park. He had 22 possessions and was among his side’s best as they won by 51 points after scores were level at halftime.

In 1987, true to Serafini’s wine analogy, he had two of his very best games in Rounds 7-8 1987 when, having turned 30 in October ’86, he polled three medal votes and two medal votes in wins over Essendon at Princes Park and Sydney at the SCG.

Fitzroy were 39 points down against the Bombers in Round 7 but kicked 18-6 to 8-2 in the second half to win by 25 points. Thornton had 27 possessions, second only to Leon Harris’ 28 on the possession count. Doug Barwick kicked seven goals, Richard Osborne kicked four and another young lad from Camperdown in his third game kicked four goals. It was Ken Hinkley.

The following week, in his 114^th game, Thornton posted a career-high 34 possessions as Fitzroy, eventually to finish 11^th on the ladder, led all the way to win by 29 points against a Sydney side that would finish third.

He played 20-20-13 games in three years under Parkin before finishing up under Rod Austin in 1989, when he played five games in Rounds 10-11-12-13-14 before dropping back to play a key leadership role in the Reserves finals campaign.

His last senior game was against Geelong at Kardinia Park. Fitzroy were 14 points up at halftime but lost by 24 points. It was Mick Conlan’s second-last game, Leon Harris’ sixth last game and just the second game for a 19-year-old Tasmanian in the Geelong side – Adrian Fletcher.

Thornton had worn the #4 jumper for Fitzroy a club record 94 times. Only Craig McRae, who carried #4 through Brisbane’s 2001-02-03 premiership hat-trick, has worn this number more often across the entire Lions family.

After hanging up the boots Thornton gave his time to the club as an assistant-coach and team manager, maintaining a close Lions connection while working first as an accountant and from 1998 as the owner/operator of McDonald’s franchises in Keysborough and Parkmore in Melbourne.

In 2003 he was named in the Prahran Team of the Century alongside a host of familiar names, including Carlton great Wayne Johnston, South Melbourne premiership player and coach Bill Faul, Melbourne premiership player and B&F winner John Townsend (uncle of Marcus Ashcroft and great uncle of Will Ashcroft), and Graham McMahon, later Essendon chairman, including their 2000 premiership year, and a member of the AFL Commission.

Coach and ruck-rover of the Team of the Century was Kevin Rose OAM, a member of Collingwood’s famous Rose family who played 159 games for the Pies (1958-67) and shared a premiership in 1958. He coached Fitzroy from 1975-77 and was the Collingwood president from 1996-98 before Eddie McGuire took over in 1998.

Always a strong supporter of the Brisbane-Fitzroy merger, Thornton joined the Brisbane Lions Board of Directors in January 2015 on a vote of members, following a path blazed previously by good mate Serafini.

Current Lions Chairman Andrew Wellington confirmed that during his Board tenure Thornton played a critical role in connecting the Club with it’s traditional Fitzroy supporter base and representing the Club in Victorian based events.

Thornton had been diagnosed with appendix cancer two years ago but bravely fought the horror disease and midway through last year was given the all clear that  he was cancer-free. Sadly, it returned before the inevitable happened almost fittingly on Anzac Day.

As his countless mates recounted their favourite Thornton stories over the last 24 hours as news of his passing spread one story which typifies perfectly the Thornton spirit but had nothing to do with football came to the fore.

In 2012 Thornton appeared with daughter Tarryn in the second series of ‘The Amazing Race’, an Australian adaption of an American reality competition in which teams of two raced across Europe.

Each season was split into legs, with teams tasked to deduce clues, navigate themselves in foreign areas, interact with locals, perform physical and mental challenges, and travel by air, boat, car, taxi, and other modes of transport. Teams were progressively eliminated at the end of most legs for being the last to arrive at designated Pit Stops.

Thornton, 55 at the time, made a formidable combination with daughter Tarryn, a Victorian representative basketball player who at the time was working as a dietician and personal trainer.

It was competitive-plus but done in good spirits.

Prior to the event Tarryn had said: “I guess in some ways I’ve grown up in the shadow of Dad’s achievements. But I’m 27 now and hopefully about to move out of home. I want to show him that I am independent and I can handle things by myself. I don’t always need him to hold my hand all the time.

“Dad can be short-tempered at times but he’s also logical and systematic. I tend to be a tad impatient and stress under pressure.

Thornton said prior to the event: “I’m sure there will be disagreements … Tarryn thinks she knows best … but I know I know best,” he said, adding that he feared nothing “except what might come out of my daughter’s mouth.”

As the Amazing Race records say, the father-daughter team won the first leg of the race after making up a 30-minute deficit – in typical Thornton fashion. They also won the first ever ‘salvage pass”, which they used to save the last placed team from elimination. Again in typical Thornton fashion. But they ran into trouble in the so-called ‘coin challenge’ and ultimately took a two-hour penalty which saw them eliminated in Turkey to finish eighth.

Another chapter in the wonderful life of one of the great Lions!

Vale Ross Thornton!