Lions.com.au catches up with past player Warwick Irwin - a former Club Best & Fairest who played 213 games and kicked 228 goals for Fitzroy between 1970-80 and 1983.

What are you up to these days?

Very little actually. I’ve got a son who’s 12 now and most of my time is spent as a taxi driver taking him around to his different sporting commitments.

He plays football and basketball, but his great love is the water. His great passion is swimming and lifesaving.

Do you still catch up with any of your former team-mates?

Garry Wilson lives down my way, so I see him quite a bit.

Other than that I don’t catch up with a lot of the guys. It’s like my wife sometimes says - you should never live in the past, you should always live in the present.

I suppose I am guilty of that.

Do you still follow the AFL?

I watch it on television and have an interest in the Brisbane Lions obviously.

My son’s a bit disillusioned at the moment. He wants to know why the Lions were so good when he was growing up, and now he’s old enough to understand what’s going on, they’re not doing so well.

I just told him that these things tend to go in cycles and that it’ll come back around again.

That’s the way the League want it, I think. It helps the competition. That’s why they have these equalisation funds and recruiting concessions.

What are the most vivid memories from your playing days?

I suppose my first game is something that I’ll never forget. Mine just happened to be at the MCG which made it even more significant.

I remember we played Melbourne and they won the game. I played on the wing and played on Barry Bourke in the first half - and he went on to win Sportsman of the Week. Then I was put on Stan Alves in the second half and ended up getting two Brownlow votes. I got dropped the next week.

I guess that game was memorable for all the wrong reasons.

But it’s so easy for that first game of footy to just pass you by. Because it’s so fast compared to any other game you’ve played in, you tend to be spectating - just from a closer vantage point.

You earned plenty of honours in your days. Is there any particular achievement that you are most proud of?

Probably winning a Best & Fairest in a time when I playing with such great players like John Murphy, Garry Wilson and Bernie Quinlan.

After a decade with Fitzroy, you moved to Collingwood for one season, but returned to the Lions again in 1983. How tough was that time? 

Probably one of the most bittersweet memories of my playing days was when I moved to Collingwood and we played Fitzroy in a Final.

On that occasion, Collingwood beat Fitzroy by one point and, to be perfectly honest, I didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. I really had mixed emotions.

Collingwood were eight goals up at one stage during the match. Fitzroy hit the front in the last quarter and looked like winning with only a couple minutes to go, but eventually got pipped in the end.

My heart just sank. On one hand I felt really happy that I was playing in a Preliminary Final the following week, but I just felt so terrible for those Fitzroy people because I knew how much they’d been through and how much effort they’d put in to get where they had.

That was a day of really mixed emotions.

The next one was when I went back to Fitzroy. I probably had to eat a bit of humble pie to go back, but 99% of the Fitzroy people welcomed me back with open arms and I appreciated that at the time and still do now.


The Brisbane Lions are currently in the process of updating their database of past players and coaches. If you played a senior match with Fitzroy, the Bears or the Brisbane Lions (or know someone that has) and haven’t remained in contact with the Club, please email your phone and address details to melbourne@lions.com.au so that we can keep you in touch with any future events with past players.