Former Fitzroy cult figure Michael Conlan spoke with fans at a recent Historical Society event at Etihad Stadium which reunited members of the Roys’ 1989 Reserves Premiership team.

Conlan played 210 senior games and kicked 395 goals with Fitzroy from 1977-89, and remains intimately involved in football today as the CEO for AFL Queensland.

After a glittering career with Fitzroy that spanned 13 years, what are your fondest memories from your time with the Club?

I was probably very fortunate to come into the Club at a time we were just on the rise.

In those days Fitzroy probably had one of the best high performance centres, as we call them now, in the League and the Junction Oval had the best playing surface. The fitness centre was fantastic – we had amenities around Albert Park and an abundance of ovals and all had fantastic facilities.

Throughout my 13 years I truly felt we could win the flag in probably nine of those. We used to run down the race thinking we could beat any team.

I played in nine finals with Fitzroy, a Night Grand Final in 1978, and finished off in 1989 with a reserve grade premiership.

1989 was an amazing story. We won three games in a row at Waverley to get into the Grand Final. The first was a really tough game against Footscray, which was followed by an even tougher game against Essendon who everyone thought were a better side than us. Then we went in as underdogs against Carlton and really took them by storm and knocked them over to get into the Grand Final. So we actually had a really long journey and played it really hard.

It was the last premiership that Fitzroy ever won, and having been at Fitzroy for the 13 years, it was pretty unique that about 5-6 – including guys like Mark Scott, Leon Harris, and Ross Thornton - who had come through together retired after that game.

It was also a very unique and amazing feeling to be able play your last game in front of nearly 100,000 people at the MCG and to hold the trophy at the end.     

That 1989 Reserves Grand Final between Fitzroy and Geelong is well-known for the brawl that broke out after half-time. Did you play any role in facilitating that?

Definitely not. At that stage of my career, being 31 years of age, I was well beyond that. When it did start to happen, I actually started to feel a bit sorry for the guys that were getting hit. A couple of our players did turn quite aggressive on them, and it certainly changed the game.

I cringed a little bit. A couple of the punches that were thrown I think sent a bit of a shock through the Geelong and it certainly turned on some aggressive and sparked some enthusiasm among the rest of the players.

Fortunately after that, we went on to play football.

What can you remember from your first ever game with Fitzroy?

I had the chance to come down and play just before the clearances closed in 1977, and was picked to play in the centre against Carlton’s Greg Towns.

It was unique as it was the only time they had cancelled the reserve grade game due to the heavy grounds caused by a lot of rain over the last couple of couple months.

So I was all ready to go and then about six of us that were playing in the reserves were all eligible for the under 19s, so we were all put in a taxi and sent over to Glenferrie Road where we were playing Carlton in the under 19s.

I was all sort of cranked up to play against Greg Towns, as he was a big name at that point in time, and the whole Glenferrie Oval was covered in water. There were probably about 25 people in the crowd, because in those days the under 19s used to play at the same time as the seniors. So I thought, ‘this is great – the ground’s covered in water and nobody’s here’.

We went on to win 28-27 so that was my first game and I managed to kick a goal on the day, so I was pretty happy about that. It was certainly great to get the opportunity to play for Fitzroy and play AFL.

Which of your Fitzroy teammates at the time did you most look up to?

Laurie Serafini sort of took me under his wing, because he only lived about 200 metres away. In actual fact, Laurie drove me from Preston down to Moorabbin in his EJ Holden Station for my second game. I had been picked to play in the seconds on ‘Mad Dog’ Muir, so I had about an hour down in the car to think about this.

Laurie was certainly a great help to me, to the point where he also said, “look during the week you should take some time out – I need to take you to a really good menswear store so we can sharpen you up a bit”. I was from the country and he said “if you’re going to come out with me you need to look good”.

The first thing Laurie did when we went into the menswear store was get a new pair of pants and a nice body-fitting type shirt and a pair of shoes from Aquila. I’ll never forget going out with him after playing St Kilda one Saturday night, and of course it was a disco and had the silver balls and everything.

I didn’t know anybody, of course, having been in Melbourne for only a couple of weeks and Laurie seemed to know everyone in the room. I thought ‘how do they know this bloke? He’s only played under 19s and a couple games in reserves’.

I then found out later why they knew him so well. It was because when he got on the dance floor, he was like John Travolta!

After about six months, Garry Wilson said “listen, if you want to be a League footballer, you and Laurie need to pull your heads in, be in bed earlier, focus more on your football and stop focusing on the girls”. That was good advice from Garry, so I had very good mentors.

Your name is often synonymous with ‘that’ 1986 Elimination Final against Essendon. What are your memories from that particular season?

It was an incredibly year 1986. We were coming off a really bad season in ’85, where we nearly finished last. We had a shocker off a year, and personally I had a terrible year as well.

Then 1986 was a really good year for the Club. We really rallied and had a great bunch of guys who worked incredibly hard. We’d come off five years spent under Robert Walls, who had been a fantastic coach, and then David Parkin came across from Carlton.

David was extremely passionate and hell-bent on proving Carlton wrong. He probably got the best out of us that year, and I think a lot of us needed to prove everyone wrong because we had a terrible year in ’85. So we trained incredibly hard and ended up making the finals.

We had to play Essendon in the Elimination Final, who we had beaten twice that year actually, so we felt as though we had the wood on them. It turned out being one of those days where you feel fantastic, but it seemed like everywhere I went, the ball went the other way. I think I only had four touches up to that last kick, so I was desperate to make amends.

Your former Fitzroy teammate Leon Harris claims that he deserves some of the recognition for your match-winning goal against the Bombers because he was the one who passed you the ball. Is that true?

Fortunately he did see me out the corner of his eye. We had a pretty good feel for each other around the ground.

Leon was pretty goal hungry himself, so whenever he got around the 50 metre line he didn’t really didn’t want to let go of it. I was a bit fortunate that he was about 70 meters out.

He actually side-stepped his opponent and I thought he was going to try and have a bounce, but fortunately he did pass it to me. I must admit, I have been in debt for the rest of my life for that pass, so thank you Leon. I think that shot at goal is about the only thing I ever get remembered for.

You currently hold the CEO position at AFL Queensland. What does that role involve?

I’m sort of looking after all community and grass roots football in Queensland, which is great. We look after everything outside of the League clubs.

We’ve got over a hundred people and we have 17 satellite offices around Queensland, so we are certainly trying to grow the game in the northern parts of Australia and take on a very competitive environment in Rugby League, Rugby Union and soccer.

It’s a great opportunity and certainly we are growing the game very rapidly so it’s very exciting.