Former Fitzroy Coach Robert Shaw spoke with fans at a recent Historical Society event at Etihad Stadium which reunited members of the Roys’ 1989 Reserves Premiership team.

Shaw coached Fitzroy in 86 senior games from 1991-94 after first joining the Club as an Assistant Coach in 1989.

In your first season at Fitzroy, you led the team to the 1989 Reserves Premiership with a memorable win over Geelong. What are your recollections from the day?

It was a really enjoyable time. It was a great win and a great game.

The game was played on a very special day, because it was when Gary Ablett kicked nine goals against Hawthorn, which still goes down as one of the great Grand Finals.

And from about halfway through the third quarter and the last quarter, we got to play in front of around 100,000 people.

What are your fondest memories of your four seasons spent as Fitzroy’s senior coach from 1991-94?

We won nine games I think in 1992 and 10 the next year. At both stages of those two seasons we were 6-3, and saw the emergence of what we hoped would be a really good side.

Obviously the team was made up of a lot of the boys from the 1989 Reserves premiership side, and a couple of blokes who were emergencies in that seconds side – like Peter Caven and Stephen Paxman.

There was also Darren Wheildon, Paul Broderick, and Billy McCormack who was probably as good a 18 or 19-year-old player as I’ve seen. Billy was a sensational player, but obviously had issues with his fitness and his weight, but he was as good as I’ve seen.

Then having guys like Lynchy (Alastair Lynch) and Michael Gale made it a really good team with a good balance. We didn’t have any ruckmen, but we did alright.

I guess the move to the Western Oval – while it had been a great vision and sounded really good – proved difficult in transporting one culture from one side of town to the other.

Of course I’ll never forget to this day, when the AFL fixture came out and our first two home games were against Sydney and the Brisbane Bears which only brought in around 6,000-7,000 people.

They did it beautifully didn’t they? There was no Carlton or Collingwood visiting the Western Oval.

You went on to coach Adelaide from 1995-96 and had further stints as an Assistant Coach with Essendon (1999-2005) and Fremantle (2006-08). How did your time at Fitzroy compare to those jobs?

After six years, I found it really hard to leave because it was really emotional being involved with Fitzroy.

When I went to Adelaide, I went with my wife and four daughters who then ranged from 2-8 years of age.

A couple of years later when I was told that I wouldn’t be coaching Adelaide anymore, I wasn’t that upset, but I rushed home and said to the kids, ‘come in here and sit with dad’. I told them that I wouldn’t be working with the Adelaide footy club anymore, and that we were going to go home.

My oldest girl, without a word of a lie, looked at me and said ‘dad, can we go back to Fitzroy’. That was in 1997 and I said ‘look, there’s another problem….’

What are you doing with yourself these days?

I have a show on SEN on Sunday mornings and enjoy that.

I came back from Fremantle three years ago and couldn’t get back into footy, so I went back to teaching. I was teaching in 1989. All of us were teachers back then. So I went back to teaching junior kids at Brighton Grammar and running the footy program there.

Now I just go and watch the football as an observer and do my little show on a Sunday morning. I’m in a nice space. My kids have grown up; I’ve got a grandson and another on the way.

Would you ever consider a return to the AFL coaching ranks?

You always miss the Club environment.

Back in my days with Fitzroy you only needed three coaches – now you need 15 and are using computers and all that new technology.

That’s the way the game’s going, so it’s very difficult now to work. I only left three years ago, and it’s very difficult to work in an AFL environment now because it’s so pressurised and the process has changed significantly.

There’s not enough time for people now. And one of the great things about being at Fitzroy was that we believed we always had enough time for people.

That said, if someone knocked on the door and said they desperately wanted me to come to their footy club and give me ‘X’ amount of money, you’d consider it. But I’ve given up chasing that sort of thing.

Do you look forward to reunions like the Fitzroy 1989 Reserves Premiership one as a chance to catch-up with some old faces?

To walk in here and see everyone from people who I worked closely with – like ‘Curly’ (Rod Austin) and Geoff (Southby) – to the trainers.

I remembered the trainers’ faces, I had to check some of the name-tags but I got most of them right.

I say this wherever I go, but if you’ve been with Fitzroy you’ve met great people and they’re still here.