Roger Merrett was a phenomenal recruit for the Brisbane Bears. He played more games and kicked more goals for the expansion club than anyone else. A genuine ‘hard man’ of football, he made a young side walk that little bit taller in the early days at Carrara.

Such was his influence that he was the club’s first life member and is recognized via the Brisbane Lions club championship trophy, the Merrett/Murray Medal.

But in Round 12 1998 Merrett found himself in unchartered territory. He was appointed caretaker of the Lions following the sacking of John Northey three days after a 71-point loss to Fremantle in Perth left them at the bottom of the ladder and without Brownlow Medalist Michael Voss for the rest of the season after an horrific broken leg.

It was a shocking time for the club in the second year post-merger but in the context of the overall club history it was a critical time, and is the headline story for the next chapter of the ‘Remember When …. Round 12’.

Why? Because the exit of Northey paved the way for the appointment three months later of mastercoach Leigh Matthews.

Northey, who had guided the Bears to their first preliminary final in 1996 after taking over from the retiring Robert Walls, had seen the new-look Lions fall into the finals in 1997 with a 10-1-11 record before things went from bad to worse in ’98.

They lost their first five games, surprised by beating Richmond and St.Kilda, who would subsequently finish 10^th and 6^th respectively, and then lost four on the trot. At 2-9, after a messy process at Board level which prompted the resignation of deputy chairman Alan Piper, it was decided Northey had to go.

So, on Sunday 14 June Merrett began his AFL coaching career against 11^th-placed Port Adelaide at the Gabba. At selection he included Chris Johnson, Justin Leppitsch and Scott Bamford for the injured Voss, Luke Power and Tristan Lynch, with Simon Black, the travelling emergency the week before, left out again.

As life had been at the Gabba had been for weeks, it was a rollercoaster. The Lions were 21 points up late in the first quarter and 26 points down late in the fourth quarter. But they kicked four goals after the 22-minute mark to grab a draw via a pressure-charged 35m Shaun Hart goal following a gift from Port’s Stuart Dew.

With 30seconds to play Dew kicked in from a point. He couldn’t have picked out Hart any better. And on a 45-degree angle Hart did the rest to thrust Merrett into an exclusive club reserved for those who began their AFL coaching career with a draw.

Merrett was the fourth of what is now six coaches among a total of 376 in AFL history to do so, following Geelong’s Billy Orchard (1914), Melbourne’s Percy Wilson (1921) and North Melbourne caretaker coach Keith McKenzie (1966). After Merrett came Sydney’s John Longmire (2011) before the first and only man to coach a draw in his only game at the helm – Essendon captain turned three-time Brisbane premiership assistant-coach turned Essendon caretaker coach Gary O’Donnell (2006).

At the time of Merrett’s debut draw it was widely but mistakenly reported that Carlton great Alex Jesaulenko had also done likewise at St.Kilda in 1980. He did start at the Saints with a draw but, in one of football great oddities, ‘Jezza’, one-time coach of QAFL club Sandgate, had been captain-coach of the 1989 Carlton premiership side before quitting the club after the exit of president George Harris.

That Round 12 1998 wasn’t exactly good news for the Lions wasn’t anything new. It had long been a bad round for the club, and in now 35 years the Round 12 record stands at 11-1-23, including 3-13 away from home.

Still, there have been many highlights including:-

1994 – A Home-Grown Hundred

Scott McIvor was a Wilston-Grange junior who started his AFL career at Fitzroy under Robert Walls, debuting at 18 in 1985, playing 55 games in three years, and winning the club B&F in ’87 after being runner-up in ’86.

He was a star. But as much as he loved Fitzroy he was a Queenslander first and foremost. And at the first available opportunity he returned ‘home’ to join the Brisbane Bears for their second season in 1988.

Six years later, in Round 12 1994, McIvor claimed a special place in club history as the fourth player overall and the first Queenslander to play 100 games for the Bears.

It was at Subiaco in Perth where a 27-year-old McIvor and the Bears, sitting 11^th on a 15-team ladder, took on top-of-the-table West Coast.

The left-footed utility player reached his milestone game under his fourth Brisbane coach in seven years, having played under Peter Knights (1988-89), caretaker coach Paul Feltham (1989) and Norm Dare (1990) before he was reunited with a familiar face – Walls. And together they gave the eventual 1994 premiers one almighty fright.

The underdogs, without injured skipper Roger Merrett, were down by five points at quarter-time before pulling level at the long break. It was goal for goal, and at the last change the Eagles were just six points up.

An almighty upset was brewing, and had the Bears not kicked 1-6 in the final quarter, including two ‘posters’, plus three out of bounds, they may just had got there. Instead, they had to settle for a 10-9 (69) to 11-12 (78) loss in which ex-Eagle Paul Peos kicked four goals, Marcus Ashcroft (2) and Richard Champion (1) figured in the Brownlow votes behind West Coast’s Peter Matera, and Matthew Clarke and Craig Lambert topped the B&F voting.

It wasn’t the win McIvor and Walls had been hoping for, but it gave the young Bears a new sense of belief that they weren’t far off the pace – as would start to show in the following 18 months.

1996 – A Half Dozen for ‘Fly’

About 26 years ago, in Round 12 1996, a tearaway 22-year-old left-footer played his 30^th game for the Brisbane Bears against Melbourne at the Gabba. He kicked six goals. It was a mark that 165 games and three premierships later would remain a career best.

Who was it? Craig McRae. Now in his first season as Collingwood coach, the man they still call ‘Fly’ blitzed the Demons to even upstage premier goal-kicker Alastair Lynch (five goals) in an 18-15 (123) to 6-10 (46) win. And it could have been more – he kicked 6-3.

McRae was in just his second season at the Gabba despite being claimed by the club in the 1993 Pre-Season Draft. So small was he at the time, the club had decided he should spend a further 12 months playing with Glenelg in the SANFL before tackling the rigors of the AFL.

It was a wise call, and from his debut in Round 1 1995 he was 10-year regular (injury aside) in arguably the greatest team of all-time, sharing in the 2001-02-03 premierships before a no-fuss retirement after the 2004 grand final loss.

1997 – Seven Goals for ‘Molly’

There is no doubting triple premiership star Chris Johnson was the golden nugget for the Brisbane Lions post-merger. Of the so-called ‘Chosen Eight’ of Fitzroy who moved to Brisbane he was the standout.

Similarly, with the career of ex-Fitzroy captain Brad Boyd cruelly destroyed by injury, Jarrod Molloy had the next most impact. The bullocking marking forward played 61 games based at the Gabba - more than Boyd (15), Scott Bamford (24), John Barker (8), Shane Clayton (5), Nick Carter (5) and Simon Hawking (0) combined.

And in Round 12 1997, back at the MCG, he had perhaps his finest hour in a Brisbane jumper when he kicked a career-best seven goals in a 21-9 (135) to 7-8 (50) win over Melbourne. Returning from a nine-week injury absence, Molloy kicked as many goals as the Demons, and picked up two Brownlow Medal votes. And with six goals the following week he showed his enormous potential.

He went on to top the Brisbane goal-kicking and win International Rules selection in 1999 before, 12 months later with a year on his contract, he decided he wanted to return to Melbourne and eventually was part of the trade that landed triple premiership fullback Mal Michael in Brisbane. And two years later he found himself a member of the Collingwood side beaten by Brisbane in the 2002 grand final.

Famously remembered for taking a play-on advantage to unwittingly deny Jonathan Brown what would have been his only possession on debut, Molloy is a member of a surprisingly large club of ex-Brisbane players to play in a grand final post-Brisbane.

It’s a tough trivia question. There are 15 players who combined for 22 grand finals appearances, six flags, a draw and 15 losses.

Premiership players post-Brisbane were Brad Pearce at Carlton (1995), Mark Roberts at North Melbourne (1996), the aforementioned Shane Clayton at North (1999), Craig Bolton at Sydney (2005), and Elliot Yeo and Jack Redden at West Coast (2018).

Jason Gram, a two-game Lion, played in the 2010 drawn grand final for St.Kilda either side of losses in 2009-10 after Jamie Duursma, a one-game Bear in the club’s first season, was the first member of this exclusive group at Melbourne in 1988.

Roberts played in a North grand final loss in 1998, before Molloy, Nathan Buckley and Shane O’Bree did likewise with Collingwood in 2002 and Buckley and O’Bree repeated with the Pies in 2003. Bolton also played in Sydney’s 2006 grand final loss before Tom Logan followed at Port Adelaide in 2007, Yeo with West Coast in 2015, Lachie Henderson with Geelong in 2020 back at the Gabba, and Stefan Martin and Josh Schache with the Western Bulldogs in 2021.

2009 – A First Win in Launceston

The Lions made their first visit to Launceston in 2008, losing by 69 points to Hawthorn, but returned in Round 12 2009 to extract a 42-point revenge on the same opponent.

It was a barnstorming win by the sixth-placed Lions over the seventh-placed ‘home’ side in Michael Voss’ first season as coach. They kicked only three goals in the first half and were 14 points down before Simon Black and Jonathan Brown led an imposing revival.

Black (29 possessions and three votes) and Brown (five goals and two votes) helped take a six-point advantage to three-quarter time before a 6-2 to 0-2 final term, with Daniel Rich, seven days after his 19^th birthday and playing his 12^th game, kicked the last goal to close out a 13-15 (93) to 7-9 (51) win.

1988 - Mick Conlan 200 Club

In the Fitzroy history, a famous Round 12 moment takes us back to 1988 when Mick Conlan became the 10^th and penultimate player to reach 200 games for the club.

Sitting 12th on the then 14-team team ladder at 3-8, they played the sixth-placed 6-5 Essendon at Waverley. And after trailing 0-3 to 4-6 at quarter-time hit back to win 7-9 (51) to 4-9 (33).

Oddly, after Fitzroy failed to kick a goal in the first quarter Essendon then failed to kick a goal in the last three quarters, when it was 7-6 to 0-3.

There were two Fitzroy debutants. Paul Broderick went on to play 93 games with Fitzroy before a 169-game stint at Richmond which ended at the hands of the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba in the 2001 preliminary final, and Steven Newman, a ruckman who had been recruited from the Essendon reserves at the start of the ’88 season. He failed to register a statistic and never played at AFL level again.

It was a young Fitzroy side under David Parkin, with Alastair Lynch playing his ninth game at 19. Only Conlan (200), Leon Harris (168), Paul Roos (135), Scott Clayton (121), Gary Pert (120) and Richard Osborne (116) have topped 100 games. John Ironmonger (57) was next.

Darren Kappler (21 possessions) picked up three Brownlow votes and Mathew Armstrong (20 possessions) two votes as Leon Harris topped the possession count with 34 and Osborne (3 goals) and 48^th-gamer John Blakey (2 goals) lead the scoring.

Conlan, aged 30 years 119 days, was the fifth-oldest of the then 11 Fitzroy 200-gamers, and was followed to the double century by only Paul Roos in 1991.

More significantly, Conlan’s 379 goals at the 200-game mark was second among this august group at the corresponding time behind only Brownlow Medallist Alan Ruthven (409).

Born in Tasmania and recruited from Manuka in Canberra, Conlan had been a favorite with Fitzroy fans in the #12 jumper he wore more often than any other player.

Ranked 11^th on the Fitzroy games list at 210 and seventh on the goals list at 395, he was ahead of times with his focus on heavy weights work in the gym and was noted for his explosive power and bursting runs down the flanks.

Despite his heritage he represented Victoria four times at State of Origin level, famously kicked the winning goal in the dying seconds of the 1986 elimination final against Essendon and finished his career with a Reserves premiership in 1989.

Named in 2001 on the interchange bench in the Fitzroy Team of the Century in the greatest individual accolade of his career, Conlan later spent time as CEO of AFL Queensland.

And in the last Fitzroy Round 12 game in 1996 the Lions travelled to Waverley to meet Hawthorn, who were 10^th on the ladder a game and a half outside the top eight.

Captain Brad Boyd returned from injury with Adam McCarthy to replace Jason Baldwin and Peter Doyle in what was the 50^th AFL game for Martin Pike, who had begun his career with 24 games at Melbourne.

The Hawks, with Nick Holland (six goals and three votes) and Jason Dunstall (four goals) providing a winning avenue to goal, led 6-2 to 2-4 at quarter-time and were untroubled to take the points 17-12 (114) to 12-11 (83). Shane Crawford (21 possessions) earned two votes.

Pike topped the Fitzroy possession count with 28, Anthony Mellington kicked six goals and Matthew Primus, in his 10^th game, earned one vote for his strong game in the ruck.

It was 22 June … the clock was ticking.