Who was the best Fitzroy import during the club’s 100 years in the AFL? Bernie Quinlan. And by the length of one of the booming kicks of the man they called ‘SuperBoot’.

Quinlan played 189 games and kicked 576 goals for Fitzroy from 1978-86 to rank 15^th on the club games list and 2^nd in goals. He won the 1981 Brownlow Medal, the 1983-84 Coleman Medals, was named at centre half forward in the Team of the Century and is an AFL Hall of Famer.  

It’s a no-brainer. Secured by Fitzroy for a $70,000 transfer fee after playing 177 games with the Bulldogs from 1969-77, Quinlan is not just the best Fitzroy import but one of Fitzroy’s very best players and one of the very best imports by any club in AFL history.

Quinlan’s time at Fitzroy was a first-class career in its own right and sees him share with ex-Port Adelaide and Hawthorn champion Shaun Burgoyne the honour of being the only AFL players to play 150+ games with two clubs.

Of Fitzroy’s 110 100-gamers Quinlan was the sixth and last to have begun his career at an opposition club. And although Quinlan is a clear standout it’s a field of real quality.

Jack Moriarty, full forward in the Team of the Century, began his career at Essendon, while 1913 premiership player Charlie Norris started at Collingwood, and 1944 premiership players Clen Denning and Maurie Hearn were originally from Carlton and South Melbourne respectively.

The sixth 100-game import was 1968 mid-season pickup Doug Searl from Collingwood.

Ironically, Quinlan had debuted as a 17-year-old for Footscray against Fitzroy in Round 12 1969, when he kicked four goals in a 47-point win at Whitten Oval. He’d played 15 times against the Lions for a 9-6 record, but it didn’t matter to the Fitzroy fans after his switch. He became an overnight favourite with the Lions fans and enjoyed unwavering support for nine years in the #5 jumper that became his trademark.

After his retirement from football Quinlan, who had done national service as a 20-year-old based at Puckapunyal, rising to the rank of lance corporal, worked in the media with the ABC (1987) and Channel 7 (1988-94). And he was still worshipped by Fitzroy fans.

The collective Lions’ faithful were positively overjoyed when Quinlan was appointed 1995 senior coach to replace four-year senior coach Robert Shaw.

Sadly, it was the beginning of the end for the boy from Traralgon in Victoria’s east. While Quinlan never lost his lustre with the fans and is still a massive favourite as he celebrates his 71^st birthday today (THURSDAY) he did lose his job in Round 19 1995.

And while it was a sad time for all involved it did not detract at all from the Quinlan legacy and affords us the opportunity to recount Quinlan’s massive contribution to Fitzroy in the “Remember When – Round 19” flashback.

Quinlan had taken over a Fitzroy side that had finished 14^th on a 15-team ladder in 1994 with just five wins. And after the massive loss of Alastair Lynch to Brisbane in ’94 they’d suffered heavily with player exits over the 1994-95 summer, with Ross Lyon joining Lynch in Brisbane, Mathew Armstrong going to North Melbourne, Marcus Seecamp to Melbourne and Michael Dunstan to West Coast. Darren Wheildon, Peter Sartori and ex-Bears rover David Bain had retired.

Fitzroy had picked under seven players from opposition clubs - Doug Hawkins and Simon Atkins (Footscray), Martin Pike and Wayne Lamb (Melbourne), Darren Holmes (Sydney) Andrew Cavedon (Carlton) and Adam McCarthy (North Melbourne) – and would debut for a further eight – Brett Chandler, Matthew Manfield, Peter Bird, Anthony Mellington, John Rombotis, Jeff Bruce, Peter Doyle and Marty Warry.

But they struggled. After a Round 6 win over the then winless St.Kilda at Waverley and a Round 8 win over competition newcomers Adelaide Fitzroy got to Round 18 with a 2-16 record.

In Round 19 they played Sydney, who sat 14^th on the 16-team ladder at 5-13, at Whitten Oval, which was the Lions’ adopted homeground and Quinlan had begun his AFL career 26 years earlier.

Ironically, one of the AFL’s champion goal-kickers and imports ended the coaching career of another champion goal-kicker and import when Swans’ import Tony Lockett kicked a career-best 16 goals in his side’s to 27-8 (170) to 6-8 (44) win. He kicked 16-0 from 18 kicks to earn three Brownlow Medal votes to give debutant Warry, player #1148 on the all-time Fitzroy list, a brutal introduction.

Quinlan was relieved of his coaching duties after the sixth-biggest loss in Fitzroy history and replaced for the last three games of the 1995 season by Alan McConnell, who 12 months later would coach the last 11 games in Fitzroy history in 1996 following the resignation of Mick Nunan.

It wasn’t the end that anyone wanted for the ever-popular Quinlan but his legacy statistically and anecdotally was unquestioned.

His 116 goals in 1983 was a club record for most goals in a season, with his 105 goals in 1984 next best. His 22 Brownlow Medal votes in 1981 to share the game’s highest individual honour with ex-Bulldogs teammate Barry Round was bettered by only two Fitzroy players – Dinny Ryan’s 26 votes when he won the medal in 1936 and Haydn Bunton’s extraordinary hat-trick of 26-23-25 votes to win in 1931-32-35.

With 11 goals against North Melbourne in 1984 and 10 against St.Kilda in 1983, he’s only of only eight Fitzroy players to kick 10+ goals in a game. And, with Moriarty and Bob Beecroft, one of three players to do so twice. Others to kick 10 for Fitzroy were Bob Merrick, Richard Osborne, Jimmy Freake, Fred Hughson and Mick Conlan.

And in Round 16 1981 against North Melbourne at Waverley he had a Fitzroy-best 34 possessions and kicked six goals in one of the club’s great individual performances.

FITZROY’S LAST ROUND 19 GAME IN 1996…

After a 15-point Round 18 loss to Footscray in the battle of the Whitten Oval co-tenants Fitzroy were back at ‘home’ in Round 19 against 11^th-placed St.Kilda, who were still in the finals hunt.

Caretaker coach Alan McConnell made only one forced change, welcoming the return of Stephen Paxman from injury to replace Round 18 debutant Robert McMahon.

But after a steady start the Lions were unable to replicate the good form of the week before. Down by 19 points at halftime they went down 5-5 (35) to 13-10 (88).

In his 57^th game Martin Pike had 37 possessions in what was at the time a career-best and would still be a career-best when he retired a 257-game four-time premiership player with North Melbourne (1999) and Brisbane (2001-02-03) in 2005.