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I thought Fitzroy was on the up as late as 1992-93. The club actually made a profit in 1993, they'd finally got a social club that was making money through the Fitzroy Club Hotel (purchased in March 1992) and were making plans to return to the Brunswick Street Oval (just up the road from the Fitzroy Club Hotel) as a training and administration base. The club had actually gained approval from the Council in 1992 to do just that, but just couldn't find the spare $250,000 to renovate the old heritage grandstand and build a modern gymnasium over the existing community rooms. As well as that in 1992, on-field we had the makings of a very good team with the likes of Alistair Lynch, Paul Roos, Richard Osborne, Paul Broderick, Matthew Armstrong, Ross Lyon, John Blakey, Michael Gale and Jimmy Wynd. The club reached the pre-season Grand Final against Hawthorn, attracting over 50,000 people. Even Fitzroy's first pre-season match against Carlton in 1993 attracted just under 25,000, which shows that with a little bit of success and hope, a significant number of Fitzroy supporters were out there. A Fitzroy game against Essendon in May 1993 at the MCG, attracted 50,000 people.

It was the end of 1993 when I first thought we were going to perhaps struggle to stay in the competition. It became clear the AFL was actively working against us when they threatened to sue Fitzroy for $250,000 that had been paid to Fitzroy by CUB as part of a club sponsorship, which included selling CUB's product in the Fitzroy Club Hotel. CUB was the AFL's sponsor and the AFL thought they should have received the money instead of Fitzroy. This was despite the fact that CUB had been a minor sponsor of Fitzroy for over ten years previously. The AFL even threatened to reduce the dividend to other clubs by the amount Fitzroy received.

Then Lynch, Gale, Dundas and Elliott left over the 1993-1994 off-season, followed by Roos, Armstrong and Lyon at the end of the 1994 season. Even Robert Shaw - the very loyal coach and passionate Fitzroy man - left. I wonder if Lynch had re-signed with Fitzroy at the end of 1993, whether our exiting of the competition in 1996 would have happened.