FITZROY Football Club has been reborn with the club striking an alignment with the Fitzroy Reds in the Victorian Amateur Football Association.

Since its VFL-AFL side merged with the Brisbane Bears at the end of 1996, creating the Brisbane Lions, Fitzroy Football Club Limited has existed without the association of a team.

That was until a board meeting on Monday night.

The Fitzroy Reds compete in the D1 section of the VAFA and wear the traditional Fitzroy jumpers of red and blue with a yellow logo.

They play their home matches at Brunswick Street Oval, which was Fitzroy's VFL home until 1966.

Club president Craig Little told Tuesday's The Age that the merger was beneficial for all parties, including the Brisbane Lions who have supported the move.

"What Brisbane potentially has with us is a grass-roots community sort of offering that’s unique to AFL clubs, a celebration of what footy used to be before it got really big," Little said.

"Supporters who come down from Brisbane to go to a game at the Dome on a Saturday night can go to Brunswick St during the afternoon and get a real sense of where it all began."

Lifelong Fitzroy fan Bill Atherton says the merger would draw plenty of nostalgic supporters who have not had a team to follow for the past 12 years.

"It was like the field of dreams had come to life again," Atherton said.

"This club’s been in the big time and had her throat cut but she lived on and now she’s back.

"The passion for clubs like this just goes back so far, you really can’t kill them off. I think even the AFL has found that out now."

Fitzroy Football Club played its final game against Fremantle at Subiaco Oval on September 1, 1996, earning wooden spoons in its last two years in the AFL.

Joining the League in 1897, Fitzroy won eight premierships and produced six Brownlow Medallists; Haydn Bunton (1931, 1932, 1935), Wilfred 'Chicken' Smallhorn (1933), Dinny Ryan (1936), Allan Ruthven (1950), Kevin Murray (1969) and Bernie Quinlan (1981).

Quinlan was also the competition's leading goalkicker in 1983 and 1984.