As part of the 1997 merger, eight Fitzroy players – Brad Boyd, Jarrod Molloy, Nick Carter, Chris Johnson, Simon Hawking, John Barker, Shane Clayton, and Scott Bamford – headed up to Brisbane to form part of the new-look Lions.

At the time, the ‘Fitzroy eight’ only represented around 20% of the merged Club’s inaugural squad, with the remainder made up from Brisbane Bears.

After just two seasons, only Boyd, Molloy, and Johnson remained.

Boyd was forced into retirement one year later, while Molloy was traded to Collingwood at the end of 2000.

That left Johnson as the sole survivor of the ‘Fitzroy eight’, although Alastair Lynch also proved a strong link to the Club’s Victorian heritage.

There was, however, the emergence of another pivotal Fitzroy figure in Jonathan Brown – the son of Brian who played 51 games for the Lions in the late 70s and early 80s – while former Fitzroy best and fairest Martin Pike also made a welcome return to the Lions at the end of 2000.

Johnson, Lynch, Pike and Brown would all famously go on to share in three successive premierships, which helped solidify that visible link to the Club’s Fitzroy origins.

But it was inevitable that time would ensure that no former Fitzroy players – or Bears for that matter – remained at the Club. The Club would eventually be made up only of ‘Brisbane Lions’ players.

Lynch ultimately bowed out in 2004, Pike followed the year after, and Johnson made history as the last ever Fitzroy player still on an AFL list, before pulling the pin himself in 2007.

Brown has since proven the sole beacon of Fitzroy’s AFL genealogy – that was until injury forced him into retirement midway through the 2014 season.

But just when some fans feared that Fitzroy’s bloodlines would run dry in Brown’s absence, along came Josh Clayton…

Clayton, the son of former Fitzroy best and fairest Scott Clayton, was selected by the Club at Monday’s Father-Son bidding meeting and will form part of the team’s senior list in 2015.

The 18-year-old becomes just the second Father-Son player (after Brown) selected by the Lions from the ‘old’ Fitzroy.

Better yet, the Sandringham Dragons utility is a passionate Lions supporter – virtue of the fact his father not only played with Fitzroy, but was also a successful Recruiting Manager for the Bears/Lions.

“I’ve gone for the Lions my whole life, so to be selected is a great privilege,” Clayton said.

“As a Lions supporter as a kid, it’s great to be at the Club you hold so dear. It’s pretty surreal, but I’m looking forward to it.”

Clayton’s comments – particularly the part about “the Club he holds so dear” – will resonate with the old Fitzroy faithful.

And they needn’t pin ALL their hopes on the promising teenager either, with the likes of Matt Rendell, Leon Harris, and Alastair Lynch, all boasting talented sons who may well follow in their father’s footsteps as well in the future.