This is a list of people who coached the

Fitzroy Football Club The Fitzroy Football Club is an Australian rules football club currently competing in the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA). Formed in 1883 to represent the inner-Melbourne municipality of Fitzroy, the club was a member of the Vi ...

in a senior

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the only fully professional competition of Australian rules football. Through the AFL Commission, the AFL also serves as the sport's governing body and is responsible for controlling the laws of the gam ...

(AFL) game. Playing the sport of

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an oval field, often a modified cricket ground. Points are scored by k ...

, the Fitzroy Football Club was formed in September 1883, and began playing in the

Victorian Football Association The Victorian Football League (VFL) is an Australian rules football league in Australia serving as one of the second-tier regional semi-professional competitions which sit underneath the fully professional Australian Football League (AFL). It ...

(VFA) the following season. Originally based at the

Brunswick Street Oval The WT Peterson Community Oval, best known as the Brunswick Street Oval and also as the Fitzroy Cricket Ground, is a cricket and Australian rules football ground located in Edinburgh Gardens in Fitzroy North, Victoria. History Australian Rule ...

, the club won its first VFA premiership in 1895, but quit the league two years later to join the newly formed Victorian Football League (VFL). Fitzroy won consecutive VFL premierships between 1898 and 1899 and between 1904 and 1905. Prior to the 1911 season, there was no official position of coach. Rather, tactics and positioning were formulating by senior players, including club captains, and selectors. Former player Geoff Moriarty was appointed the club's inaugural coach in 1911, but was replaced by Percy Parratt in 1913, who acted as playing coach. Further premierships were won under Parratt in 1913 and George Holden in 1916, with

Vic Belcher Victor George Belcher (24 August 1888 – 3 January 1977) was an Australian rules footballer, coach and umpire in the (then) Victorian Football League. Early life and family Belcher was born at Hall's Track (now known as Lebrina) north ...

captain-coaching the club to the 1922 premiership. Up until the end of the Second World War, the position of coach was almost always filled by the current captain or an ex-Fitzroy player. Frank Maher, an ex- player, coached the club in 1932 and 1933, but was followed by several one-season coaches. Fitzroy were extremely unsuccessful at this point in time, and did not make the finals between 1924 and 1943, when captain

Fred Hughson Fred Hughson (22 May 1914 – 23 October 1987) was an Australian rules footballer who played for, captained, and later coached Fitzroy in the Victorian Football League (VFL). He was the last person to lead Fitzroy to the premiership before thei ...

was appointed coach. The club's eighth and last VFL premiership came in

1944 Events Below, the events of World War II have the "WWII" prefix. January * January 2 – WWII: ** Free French General Jean de Lattre de Tassigny is appointed to command French Army B, part of the Sixth United States Army Group in Nor ...

, under Hughson. A gradual movement towards non-playing coaches came after the Second World War.

Bill Stephen William Stephen (1 April 1928 – 23 August 2020) was an Australian rules footballer with Fitzroy Football Club. He also coached Fitzroy and Essendon. Playing career Fitzroy Football Club Recruited from Thornbury CYMS and making his debut ...

, Fitzroy's longest-serving coach, coached the club on three separate occasions – from 1955 to 1957, 1965 to 1970, and 1979 to 1980 – for a total of 212 games. Fitzroy's last period of success came in the 1980s, with the club making the finals on five separate occasions between 1979 and 1986. The club merged with the

Brisbane Bears The Brisbane Football Club, nicknamed the Bears, was a professional Australian rules football club based in Queensland on the Gold Coast (relocated to Brisbane in 1993). The club participated in the Victorian/Australian Football League (VFL/A ...

to form the

Brisbane Lions The Brisbane Lions is a professional Australian rules football club based in Brisbane, Queensland, that plays in the Australian Football League (AFL). The club was formed in late 1996 via a merger of the Melbourne-based 1883 foundation VFL c ...

at the conclusion of the 1996 season, having gone through three coaches in its final two seasons, finishing last in each.

Coaches

Key

References

{{AFL club coaches

Fitzroy Football Club coaches This is a list of people who coached the Fitzroy Football Club in a senior Australian Football League (AFL) game. Playing the sport of Australian rules football, the Fitzroy Football Club was formed in September 1883, and began playing in the ...

Coaches

Key

See also

References