Debut Winning Streaks

[FitzroyPete]

Leon Harris (debut 1979) and Bernie Harris (debut 1984) both made dream starts to their Fitzroy careers.
Not so much in terms of dazzling individual performances but team success.
How many successive wins did each brother play in before experiencing their first Lions loss?
The brothers' number of wins differ but both are below 10.
Harry (bizarrely similar to Harris) Clarke holds the Fitzroy record, with his first 13 games in 1898-99 all being wins.

 

[FitzroyPete]

Ah well, it is cricket season after all - here's hoping the Aussies can play a lot better than what they've shown so far in 2018.
Leon Harris's first nine games - Rounds 5 to 13 in 1979 - were all victories, by an average margin of 45.56 points.
Bernie Harris only started with six straight wins - Rounds 17 to 22 in 1984 - by an average of 38.83 points.
I'd be very surprised if two brothers have had such glorious starts to their careers, certainly in the modern era.

 

[Len S]

Seem to remember Leon's first game was against a strong North at North.He had a sensational game on the wing,possibly against Schimma,and we won easily.Leon was a magnificent long kick,until an injury curbed that,but he was unbeatable one on one.That game was 1979.

 

[FitzroyPete]

Seem to remember Leon's first game was against a strong North at North.He had a sensational game on the wing,possibly against Schimma,and we won easily.Leon was a magnificent long kick,until an injury curbed that,but he was unbeatable one on one.That game was 1979.

The North game (Round 8, 1979) was Leon's fourth VFL game, Len.
https://afltables.com/afl/stats/players/L/Leon_Harris.html
You're spot on about Leon having a good game against North, with 27 disposals to Schimma's 13.
I only saw a replay of the second half of that match over here in Perth, but we took the Kangaroos to the cleaners after half-time (shades of the 1978 Night Grand Final and Round 13, 1983).
https://afltables.com/afl/stats/games/1979/061219790526.html

 

[Len S]

The North game (Round 8, 1979) was Leon's fourth VFL game, Len.
https://afltables.com/afl/stats/players/L/Leon_Harris.html
You're spot on about Leon having a good game against North, with 27 disposals to Schimma's 13.
I only saw a replay of the second half of that match over here in Perth, but we took the Kangaroos to the cleaners after half-time (shades of the 1978 Night Grand Final and Round 13, 1983).
https://afltables.com/afl/stats/games/1979/061219790526.html

Yes the Lions small brigade, led by Irwin,Wilson,Allen and Harris,ran amock after half time.Another young star who played well in that game was Lorenzo Serafini,who took care of Blight,whoad to be moved.The Lions really fired up after Keays was hit behid play by a frustrated South Australian recruit, who now inhabits the dark depths of Crow radio, or did.

 

[FitzroyPete]

Of course, the same SA recruit turned Crow radio man lasted just five games in his one VFL season.
Based on what I've read and footage of the game, Superboot was pretty dominant at Arden St that day.
Our dismal 1980 season was very frustrating after some of the Lions' epic performances in 1979.
Subconscious complacency after ending a 19-year finals drought, inadequate recruiting, a run of injuries and the uncertainty of a possible relocation to Sydney were perhaps some of the reasons we went from 4th to 12th (but amazingly back up to 4th in 1981).

 

[Len S]

Of course, the same SA recruit turned Crow radio man lasted just five games in his one VFL season.
Based on what I've read and footage of the game, Superboot was pretty dominant at Arden St that day.
Our dismal 1980 season was very frustrating after some of the Lions' epic performances in 1979.
Subconscious complacency after ending a 19-year finals drought, inadequate recruiting, a run of injuries and the uncertainty of a possible relocation to Sydney were perhaps some of the reasons we went from 4th to 12th (but amazingly back up to 4th in 1981).

You've opened a favorite can of worms on that topic Pete. Basically Graham Campbell did a sensational job as coach,first of the reserves, a premiership ,then the following year,a night premiership .Fitzroy had recruited massively ver a few years coming into 1979.However ,Campbell, returned to Perth for family reasons, which had significant consequences .Also,the recruited group were older, Walls,Higgins and Richardson ,particularly, and they were cooked by 1980.The biggest flaw however ,was the appointment of club legend Bill Stephen as coach,Momentum, got us through 79, but he soon lost the experienced group,and he was past it as a coach.When Walls took over,he asserted himself in no uncertain terms,and with new additions, Rendell,and Peter Francis ,who came over from Carlton, and had a great year in the centre, the team again played up to its talent.Contrary to many ,I think that was our best chance of a premiership .We had strengths everywhere, whereas in 81,our backline ,especially lacking Serafini ,and without Francis in the centre,we were down in key posts.

 

[FitzroyPete]

We certainly had some very good teams in the Quinlan era (1978-86), Len.
After the success of 1979, 1980 was a dreadfully poor year - I still wonder why we recruited John Rantall and Len Thompson (R.I.P.) when we already had a reasonably experienced list.
We started 1982 and 1984 poorly but finished both in similar fashion, but of course made the finals in 1984 (though the 1982 team was just as good a team and we actually won 1.5 games more that year than 1984).
I suppose the jury is out as to which year we had our best chance of winning a flag, but each of 1979, 1981 and 1984 intrigue me insofar as we were eliminated by Collingwood after convincingly beating them in our most recent head-to-head, home-and-away encounters (42, 26 and 42 points).
We were dreadfully unlucky (poor decision-making by both our players and the umpires) in 1983 when we lost the qualifying final to Hawthorn by four points given victory would've meant we faced North Melbourne in the second semi-final (I still rate Round 13, 1983, as the club's best-ever performance).
I believe the 1986 finals series was the only one where we exceeded expectations, though we'd beaten the eventual grand finalists Hawthorn (twice) and Carlton (once) during the season, so a premiership wasn't out of the question.
However, injuries and the Hawks' insatiable desire to make amends for their poor 1984 and 1985 grand finals meant they were fired up at Waverley in the 1986 preliminary final.