Are you the same Danni?

[Shane]

Danni I am just wondering if you are the same person that was posting so much on the Lions forum last night?

Because it is members only I can't post there. If it is you, let me know so that I can talk to you about some off the things you said. You were mostly right by the way.

 

[Danni]

Yes it is me - and yes I got your email - will respond later tonight after I get out of 'going feral'and have rid my mind of the cries of martyrdom!!

 

[Danni]

Right Shane you elusive person whose return email addy seems not to work - i will post it here for you incase you do wish to reply.

I will defend to the death the rite of our football club to live and operate now for who they are - not who or what they used to be or come from.

I will take this opportunity to say that I certainly have no malice to anyone who came to this current club from either former club - a fact that xrgb can attest to seeing as he was horrified at some times that I supported some ppl in the fact that they wanted to feel more a part of who we are now based on what they used to be.

What I do totally object to is that the fact that I and any others that feel the same way - are being subjected to hearing an old broken record with the same complaints the same bitterness and the same intention of making us more of something that isn't who we are now. That it is something more to appease the supporters and make a growth in a minority market at the expense of ppl who are now members that had no alegiance to either former club.

10,267 members of the Bears in 1996
7,628 members of Fitzroy in 1996

All those supporters lost what was dear to them as a club.

Thre are now over 22,000 members of the Brisbane Lions - with a Vic membership figure that is around 3000.

That leaves up to 9000 people that have joined since the merger - that were not members of either 'history' club. That have every rite to support their club for who they are and what they do now - not have to look at different jumpers that belong to a club that they have no allegiance to whatsoever.

There has been a time and place and emotional era for that. And it isn't now. It has gone - it isn't coming back. Let us be who we are now - not what ppl who live in the past - wish we were.

Yes I do take offence to the comments that new logo has a ' bears colour brown' seeing as the last ever bears jersery was a maroon that is even 'red-er' than the current one.

And yes I have a problem with ppl that say 'we are sitting on our arses waiting to feel that little bit of home in the new entity'

Get of that same arse and embrace the club for who they are - or piss off.

You are never going to be happy. Even if you got your 'little bit' that you now ask for, it wouldn't be enough - cause once you got that - you couldn't help but want more - cause you are living in the past.

Leave us alone - make a decision - follow and support the club for who we are now - not who it used to be. Or leave. There is no room for ppl that are intent on living in the past - that can only create divisions.

There is nothing wrong with remembering and educating ppl as to where their club has come from. But the simple fact is that it is never going to be that again. Not in the way you want it.

 

[sandie]

Danni
At least you have more to look forward to than supporters of some other teams.

------------------
Mantis

 

[Danni]

Yes Sandie we do - but not as a unified club if ppl insist on 'wanting' things from the past until they are happy. It isn't fair to the supporters, the players,or the club to expect that the happiness of a minority of members relies on (for example) the team wearing the old Fitzroy Jumper for away games.

That would be the same as the team wearing the Bears jumper when playing at the Gabba.

We are not the Bears or Fitzroy - we are the Brisbane Lions. We wear a jumper that has the history of both in it. We have a preservation and acknowledgment of history of both former clubs.

This same debate comes up every few months - and personally I am sick of it. I have agreed with the pain, I have cried with and for the members that feel they have lost sooooooo much.

But I am also a supporter of who we are now, and my alegiance does not depend on us wearing something that depicts the past. If we did that - we wouldn't be the Brisbane Lions - we would be one or the other - depending on what we wore at the time.

 

[sandie]

Danni
You won't get an argument out of me on that front, I still have a lot of contact with ex Fitzroy people & they are happy with the way things are going, but unfortunately you keep getting people throwing up the Fitzroys gone & Brisbane are here & they are totally different identities. Just ignore it & enjoy your teams success.

------------------
Mantis

 

[Danni]

Sandie - I wish I could - but unfortunatly this is one of my weaknesses - it is something where ppl and their historically-based demands and inane comments get my goat.!!

How about I buy you a bloody social club membership that will entitle you to post on the Lions forum???

And you can tell em too!!

As harsh as this may sound - for ppl that still live their lives with this mentality - it would have been better if the club had folded altogether - at least then they may have been able to move on.

 

[Roylion]

I'm not sure what this thread is exactly about or why it has come about as I read the Lions forum very rarely and am yet to make a contribution on it. However I'd like to comment on one thing, which is related. I am a Fitzroy person through and through, and mostly I am pretty happy with the merger with Brisbane. There's little doubt it was a true merger despite remarks from ignorant posters such as Woof and Red Devil, (where did they go?) who tried to put forward flimsy, transparent arguments as to why it wasn't. They didn't bother refuting any of my arguments, so we have to assume they couldn't.

Most of those who are Brisbane Lions members know what efforts the Brisbane Lions have put into recognising Fitzroy Football Club so far and I've outlined that elsewhere. However the fact remains that many Fitzroy people have not joined the Brisbane Lions for a variety of reasons. 3,000 Victorian members of the Lions from a total of 7,628 members in 1996, is NOT that good a return, especially when at that time Fitzroy were the cellar-dwellers of the League and won one game that year. Brisbane Lions in contrast has finished in the finals three out of the four years of their existence and still has had problems in picking up anything over 3,000 members in Victoria, 95% of whom were Fitzroy supporters originally.

A survey in the Melbourne Age in 1992, estimated that at least 50,000 people in Melbourne, 150,000 people in Victoria and 350,000 people Australia wide supported Fitzroy. Yet at no time in their history did Fitzroy have over 10,200 members, probably because up to the eighties no club had many paid up members and when membership did become important Fitzroy had a very poor on-field record.

Brisbane perhaps need to do more in Victoria to attract more Fitzroy people to their banner. There are far more than 3,000 Fitzroy supporters around still and they are Brisbane's obvious market, IF they want to consolidate and grow a substantial Victorian supporter base. It can be done, with a few initatives that appeal to Fitzroy people and would only occur in Victoria.

Some further initiatives that would appeal to large sections of the Fitzroy market.

- Reciprocal membership with Coburg-Fitzroy or the Reds.
- Lions Training at the Brunswick St Oval, perhaps in FFC jumpers (which is what Coburg-Fitzroy wears)
- A little FFC icon on the back of the Brisbane Lions jumper, the same as the Western Bulldogs have.
- Persuading the media not to report Brisbane Bears records as part of the Brisbane Lions, when they don't report Fitzroy's.
- Getting a few more of the old Fitzroy directors (pre 1996) onto the Brisbane Lions board, particuarly people such as Dyson Hore-Lacy.
- more games in Victoria (7-8 per year) However with Brisbane's negotiations to play up to 13 games per year at the Gabba, this appears very unlikely.

In other words developing further as many links with all parts of the Fitzroy community as possible.

I'm not criticising Brisbane here, as I believe the deal Fitzroy received from Brisbane is much better that what North could have offered...or did offer. Brisbane have done quite a lot so far for us Royboys and Roygirls, but I think they have missed some important initatives that could have...should have....already been taken, and that probably would have brought more members.

 

[Tap]

Imagine how the Bears supporters must feel, when they are told as on the Lions forum, that their history is nothing. That the club should play in the Fitzroy jumper.
The old Bears supporters, now follow, a different name, different jumper, different colours and different song.yet they are told its not enough, and don't you dare open you mouth and back the Brisbane Lions, cause we want more.
They people are in denial, totally pathetic.Dividing the club.

 

[Bear Man]

Well Tap I was a Brisbane Bear..now Lion I regularly read the Lions Forum and from what I can see that's not what has been said at all. I can't see anywhere where anyone has said Brisbane should play in a Fitzroy jumper permantly. I can't see anywhere where anyone has told anyone else that they shouldn't open their mouths in support of the Brisbane Lions. Don't all posters on the Lions forum have to be members of the club anyway? If they put their money in they are entitled to have say about their club. Making mountains out of molehills IMO.