Having received a knock-on from Grant Lawrie in the right forward pocket he tapped the ball back inside to Garry Wilson, who fired a handball over his head back out to Conlan on the boundary. He took on St.Kilda’s Trevor Barker, and after riding a heavy bump snapped truly on his left foot from 15m.

It was the Goal of the Year, and one of countless highlights of Fitzroy dynamo and 2026 Brisbane Lions Hall of Fame inductee Mick Conlan.

Born in Tasmania, raised in Canberra and recruited from Manuka in the ACTAFL, Conlan played 210 games with Fitzroy from 1977-89 and kicked 395 goals to rank 11^th on the club’s all-time games list and 7^th on the goal list.

Conlan, later CEO at AFL Queensland from 2012-15, was the 91^st of 110 Fitzroy players to 100 games in Round 14 1982 against Sydney at Junction Oval, and the 10^th of 11 Fitzroy players to 200 games in Round 12 1988 in a bizarre 18-point win over Essendon at Waverley. Fitzroy were goalless in the first quarter, trailing 0-3 to 4-6, but held Essendon goalless from that point on to win 7-9 (51) to 4-9 (33).

A 178cm powerhouse, explosively quick and powerful beyond his size, he was a veritable highlights reel who featured in some of the club’s most famous moments of his time.

He was one of only eight Fitzroy players to kick 10 goals in a game – and the last - hitting double-figures in his 132^nd game in Round 4 1984 against Footscray at Junction Oval. He kicked 10-1 in a 21-14 (140) to 9-16 (70) win to join an illustrious group headed by Bob Merrick and Jack Moriarty.

Merrick kicked 12 in 1919 to share the club record with Moriarty, who did likewise in 1928. Bernie Quinlan kicked 11 in 1984 and Richard Osborne kicked 11 in 1989, while there are seven bags of 10 – Jimmy Freake in 1915, Fred Hughson in 1928, Moriarty in 1933, Bob Beecroft in 1978-79, Quinlan in 1983. And Conlan.

Year-by-year Conlan kicked 2-19-27-39-42-52-51-51-17-45-28-8-14, and with his half-century hat-trick from 1982-84 making him one of only seven Fitzroy players to achieve such a feat.

Quinlan had the longest 50-goal streak, going 73-53-116-105-84-52 in his last six years from 1981-86, while Eddie Hart kicked 64-51-53-50-65 from 1947-51, Beecroft went 59-65-87-53 from 1977-80, and Osborne 62-62-60-68 from 1986-89.

Moriarty, the club’s all-time leading goal-kicker, had two 50-goal hat-tricks - 83-68-58 from 1927-29 and 53-81-70 in his last three years in 1931-33 – and Claude Curtin kicked 56-65-61 from 1940-42.

The barrel-chested Conlan, ahead of his time when it came to excellence in the gym, played in nine of Fitzroy’s last 10 finals through the 1980s, missing only the 1984 elimination final loss to Collingwood through injury.

In the club’s last finals campaign in 1986 he was very much to the fore. He kicked the winning goal in the last seconds of the one-point elimination final win over Essendon at Waverley, and booted four in the club’s last finals win by five points over Sydney in an MCG semi-final, when they trailed at every change.

And he went into the record books as one of 20 to play in the clubs last final - the preliminary final against Hawthorn at Waverley, when they lost by 56 points in the 100^th game of fellow 2026 Hall of Fame inductee Scott Clayton, and the last game of the incomparable Quinlan.

It seemed that wherever Fitzroy history went, Conlan followed.

He kicked four goals in the club’s biggest win and highest-score against Melbourne at Waverley in Round 17 1979. It was 36-22 (238) to 6-12 (48) and almost 50 years on remains Melbourne’s biggest loss and highest score conceded. Bob Beecroft kicked 10 goals and Warwick Irwin five.

He kicked seven goals in the club’s only other 200-point score against North Melbourne at Junction Oval in Round 13 1983. It was 34-16 (220) to 10-10 (70). Matt Rendell kicked eight goals and Quinlan seven in what is still North’s highest score conceded.

And he played in the two Fitzroy games in which most points were scored. He was inconsequential in his 7^th game when Melbourne beat Fitzroy 24-23 (167) to 23-19 (157) in Round 2 1978, but kicked five goals as Fitzroy beat North 25-16 (166) to 23-14 (152) at Junction Oval in Round 11 1984.

Curiously, given his Tasmanian/ACT heritage, Conlan was a four-time Victorian State of Origin representative, and, in an undeniable recognition of his match-winning talents, he was chosen in 2002 on the interchange bench in the Fitzroy Team of the Century.

Having inherited jumper #12 from Ray Sault, Conlan wore it throughout his career, more often than any other Fitzroy player, and as often as any player in the combined Fitzroy/Brisbane history.

Conlan and Fitzroy’s Chris Lethbridge, who wore the #12 jumper 148 times from 1913-22, are listed on the #12 locker at the Brisbane Lions’ Springfield home alongside equal record-holder Jason Akermanis (210) and Stefan Martin (133).