Matt Eagles will do tomorrow what 134 of 1156 players at Fitzroy and 13 Brisbane players before him failed to do…escape the dreaded ‘one-game wonder’ club.
Having graduated from reality TV show novelty to bona fide AFL footballer in his promising debut against Collingwood last Sunday, Eagles will play his second game for the Lions against the Western Bulldogs in Melbourne tomorrow night.
Gladly sacrificing his OGW membership, Eagles will leave behind a wonderful assortment of one-game wonder club members who boast all sorts of odd stories that inevitably figure prominently in trivia quizzes or a Friday night bar chat.
Ironically, in an unintended confirmation of the union between Fitzroy and the Brisbane-based Lions, among the Fitzroy one-gamers are Tom Broadbent and Norm Reidy, members of the Queensland Football Hall of Fame.
Broadbent, the third Queenslander behind Erwin Dornau and Ken Grimley to play at what at the time was VFL level, made his one and only appearance for Fitzroy in Round 15 1957 against Richmond at Brunswick Street Oval.
In the same game, a 19-year-old Kevin Murray played his 47th game for Fitzroy in the early years of a career that eventually saw him honoured with joint naming rights to the Merrett Murray Medal, now awarded annually to the Lions' Club Champion.
Originally from Sandgate, Broadbent debuted for Queensland at 17, captained his state at 20, wore the Maroon jumper
Reidy went the other way after playing his one and only game with Fitzroy against Melbourne at Punt Road in 1946 alongside Fitzroy Hall of Famers Fred Hughson, Frank Curcio, Allan Ruthven and Norm Johnstone.
Playing his second game for Fitzroy that day was Vic Chanter, who later became the only player ever to keep Essendon goal-kicking champion John Coleman goalless.
Reidy moved to Queensland in 1949 to join Mayne and later was Sandgate’s first premiership captain-coach in 1956-57. He also had a brief stint at
The OGW club also has a lot of more contemporary links.
From the Brisbane era, Daryl Cox, who joined the Bears in 1987 after 16 games at Fitzroy and 13 games at Melbourne, is a
He played in the club’s second game against Geelong in 1987, when they won by 19 points, and never played again.
The other Bears player never to lose a game is Troy Johnson, who played twice in 1996.
Jamie Duursma, who joined the Bears after 25 games with Sydney, played one game for the club in 1987 before going on to play 33 games at Melbourne, including the 1988 grand final.
Jason Millar, from Caloundra, played Round 1 in 1991 before a famous incident in which, driving from the Gold Coast to Brisbane, he tried to outrun police only to eventually ditch the car and attempt to jump into the Brisbane river near the start of Coronation Drive only to land on a concrete walkway below.
Other one-gamers from the Bears/Lions have been Queenslanders Alan Giffard (1987), Derek Wirth (1998), Leigh Ryswyk (2005) and Daniel Dzufer (2007), plus Robert Mace (1987), Rick Norman (1987), Darren Bradshaw (2002), Xavier Clarke (2010) and Josh Dyson (2011),
Currently-listed triple knee reconstruction victim Sam Skinner is also in the one-game club but is hoping to add to his games tally later this year.
Fitzroy’s last one-gamer was another ex-Bears player, Nigel Palfreyman. Originally from Tasmania, he played 15 games in 1992 and was traded to Fitzroy with David Bain at the end of 1993.
His only game for Fitzroy was in 1994 against Richmond at Western Oval, when his teammates included club great Paul Roos, plus five players who would later head north via the Bears/Fitzroy merger – Chris Johnson, Brad Boyd, Jarrod Molloy, John Barker and Simon Hawking.
Another Fitzroy one-gamer who had links to Brisbane was Chris Stacey. He played once for the Melbourne-based Lions in 1986 before being among the Bears’ inaugural playing list. He played three Bears games.
There are a host of other intriguing one-gamer stories from the Fitzroy days that provide further undeniable fodder for debate and trivia.
In 1982 Andrew Merryweather played his one for Fitzroy against Melbourne at Waverley in what was Paul Roos’ fourth game, He later played five games for Essendon in 1988 and is now the father of two current Geelong players – under a different name.
Merryweather was his stepfather’s name, and after his football retirement he reverted to his birth name of Andrew Guthrie, and today delights in watching Cam and Zac Guthrie playing for the Cats.
Fitzroy’s youngest player, Andrew Kuka, was a one-gamer. He was 16 years and 47 days in his only outing in 1967.
Robert Cummings, who played one game for Fitzroy in 1990, was the great grandson of ex-Fitzroy star Joe Johnson, who is credited with being the first Indigenous Australian to play in the VFL.
Jack Clancy also holds a rare distinction – he played his only game in 1957 and spent the entire game on the Reserves bench before being dropped the following week.
Steve Newman at least got on the ground for his one and only game in 1988 in what was an especially memorable afternoon for all sorts or reasons.
Originally from the Essendon Reserves, Newman played his only game against Essendon at Waverley. Fitzroy
Also in 1957, Alan Chipp played his only game. He was the young brother of former politician Don Chipp.
Rino Protto had perfectly symmetrical statistics from his only game in 1978 – one game, one kick, one goal. He is also the only ‘Rino’ to play for Fitzroy or Brisbane.
Wally Beckwith played one game in 1918 before going on to be a VFL grand final boundary umpire and run third in the Stawell Gift. Following the same path, Phil Lane played one game for Fitzroy in 1932 before becoming a senior VFL umpire.
Four Fitzroy players are members of the OGW club at two clubs., John Loughman played once for Carlton in 1912 and once for Fitzroy in 1913, while Tom Moloughney played once for Fitzroy in 1911 and once for St.Kilda in 1915.
In an equally bizarre twist, Artie Freeman played once for Fitzroy and once for Essendon in 1911 after having played 27 games for Collingwood from 1908-10.
Tom Sadler played once for Fitzroy in 1907 and once for Melbourne in 1910 before serving with the Australian Army at Gallipoli. He survived hostilities and finished a Second Lieutenant.
The connection between the Fitzroy OGW club and the war also included Sid O’Neill, who played one game in 1909 and died in World War 1, and George Elliott, who played one game in 1905 before being a member of the first University side when they joined the then VFL in 1908. He captained Uni in 1911-12 before he, too, was killed in World War 1 after having been awarded the Military Cross.
Harry Verdon played one game for Fitzroy in 1931 after two games for St.Kilda in 1927, Bill Donald played once for Fitzroy and twice for Carlton in 1927, and Herman Bartlett played one game for Fitzroy in 1910 and two for Carlton in 1912.
Fred Backway played eight games over three clubs – four for South Melbourne in 1933-34, three for Melbourne in 1935-37, and one for Fitzroy in 1938.
George Waterhouse played 10 games over three clubs – two for South in 1925. Seven for Richmond in 1926 and one for Fitzroy in 1927.
Angie Muller had a different but similarly unusual story. He played 115 games for Geelong from 1933-41, including the 1937 grand final win, before switching to Fitzroy in 1942. There he played one game.
More recently, Peter McCormack played 160 games at Collingwood from 1976-85, including the 1979-80-81 grand finals, before a double move in 1986, playing four games at Richmond before finishing his career with one game at Fitzroy.
Roger Delaney was a six-time premiership player during a 200-game career with Port Adelaide in the SANFL before being claimed by Fitzroy with the 23rd selection in the 1989 Draft. He played one game for Fitzroy in 1990 before joining the coaching staff under ex-Bears vice-captain Mark Williams following their entry to the AFL in 1997, and later coached at Maroochydore on the Sunshine Coast.
