The Fitzroy Stars Football Club is an

Australian rules football Australian football, also called Australian rules football or Aussie rules, or more simply football or footy, is a contact sport played between two teams of 18 players on an Australian rules football playing field, oval field, often a modified ...

club based in the

Melbourne Melbourne ( , ; Boonwurrung language, Boonwurrung/ or ) is the List of Australian capital cities, capital and List of cities in Australia by population, most populous city of the States and territories of Australia, Australian state of Victori ...

suburb of

Thornbury Thornbury may refer to: Places ;Australia *Thornbury, Victoria, a suburb of Melbourne **Thornbury railway station, Melbourne ;Canada * Thornbury, Ontario ;England *Thornbury, Devon * Thornbury, Herefordshire *Thornbury, Gloucestershire **Thornbury ...

. It is the only football club in Melbourne run by

Indigenous Australians Indigenous Australians are people with familial heritage from, or recognised membership of, the various ethnic groups living within the territory of contemporary Australia prior to History of Australia (1788–1850), British colonisation. The ...

. As of 2024, the club men's team competes in Division 3 of the

Northern Football Netball League The Northern Football Netball League (NFNL), formerly known as the Diamond Valley Football League (DVFL) and later the Northern Football League (NFL), is an Australian rules football and netball competition based in the Diamond Creek, Victori ...

(NFNL), while the women's team is in Division 2 of the NFNL Women's competition. The club also competes in the annual VACSAL Football Netball Carnival, where it has won the George Atkinson State Championship a total of 16 times.

History

Early years

The Fitzroy Stars were formed in 1973 and joined C Grade in the

Metropolitan Football League The VFL Sub-Districts (VFLSD), sometimes referred to as the Victorian Sub-District Football League (VSDFL), was an Australian rules football competition played in the state of Victoria and managed by the Victorian Football League (VFL), now known ...

(MFL) the same year, playing home games at

Brunswick Street Oval The WT Peterson Community Oval, best known as the Brunswick Street Oval and also as the Fitzroy Cricket Ground, is an Australian rules football and cricket ground located in Edinburgh Gardens in Fitzroy North, Victoria, Australia. History Aust ...

. They were quickly promoted, and defeated

Dallas Stars The Dallas Stars are a professional ice hockey team based in Dallas. The Stars compete in the National Hockey League (NHL) as a member of the Central Division (NHL), Central Division in the Western Conference (NHL), Western Conference. The Stars ...

by 32 points in the 1974 A Grand grand final. However, the MFL disbanded at the end of the season and was replaced by the

Northern Metropolitan Football League The Northern Metropolitan Football League (NMFL) was an Australian rules football competition based in the northern suburbs of Adelaide, South Australia until it folded at the end of the 1994 season. It first formed in 1961 as the Central District ...

(NMFL) in 1975, which the Stars entered. From 1976 until 1980, the club wore the same jumper as the

Fitzroy Football Club The Fitzroy Football Club is an Australian rules football club currently competing in the Victorian Amateur Football Association (VAFA). Formed in 1883 to represent the inner-Melbourne municipality of City of Fitzroy, Fitzroy, the club is base ...

. The NMFL disbanded after 1980, and the Stars were left without a competition to play in for several years. They entered the YCW Football League (YCWFL) in 1984 and were defeated in the B Grade grand final by the BYC Football Club, before winning the Division 1 premiership in 1986. When the YCWFL folded in 1986, the Stars applied for entry in 36 local competitions, but received rejections from every single one. As a result, club president

Jock Austin Herbert George "Jock" Austin (16 March 1938 − 3 May 1990) was an Indigenous Australian community leader. He was a Gunditjmara man who served as the coach and president of the Fitzroy Stars Football Club in its early years. His son, Troy Austin, ...

formed the Melbourne North Football League (MNFL) in 1989. They won the grand final that year, with further MFNL premierships in 1989, 1990 and 1992, as well as back-to-back grand final losses to Heidelberg Colts in 1993 and 1994. However, the MNFL disbanded following the conclusion of the 1994 season, leaving the Stars to compete solely in football carnivals.

NFNL

In 2006, after 12 years playing in carnivals, the Stars launched a new bid to join the

Northern Football League The Northern League is a British men's association football, football league in North East England, north east England. Having been founded in 1889, it is the second-oldest football league in the world still in existence after the English Footb ...

(NFL, later NFNL). The push was led by club president Troy Austin (son of Jock) and gained the support of Kevin Sheedy in 2007, who became the

number-one ticket holder A number-one ticket holder is a person who holds membership ticket number 1 of a particular sporting club. Possession of the number one ticket is largely symbolic. The tradition of having a number one ticket holder is mainly observed in Australi ...

. Before any decision had been made on their entry, the Stars began training at W.R. Ruthven Reserve in Preston. They were accepted into the NFL in 2008 and entered Division 2, where they just missed the finals series after winning 10 of their 18 games. The club used Crispe Park,

Bill Lawry Oval Bill Lawry Oval, formerly known as Northcote Park, is a cricket and Australian rules football stadium located on Westgarth St, Northcote, Victoria. It is most notable as the home ground of the Northcote Cricket Club in the Victorian Premier Cric ...

and

Preston City Oval Preston City Oval (PCO), also known by naming rights sponsorship as Genis Steel Oval (GSO) and sometimes mistakenly as Genis Street Oval, is an Australian rules football stadium in Cramer Street in Preston, a suburb of Melbourne. It has a main ...

as home grounds throughout the 2008 season. In 2012, Sir Douglas Nicholls Oval (where the Stars had played until the end of 1994) was rebuilt with funding provided by the Darebin City Council. The Stars played their at the ground for the first time in the NFL in June 2013. The Stars reintroduced junior teams in 2018. They also planned to field a women's team for the first time in 2020, before the season was cancelled as a result of the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

. The women's team eventually entered the NFNL in 2021.

Neville Jetta Neville Jetta (born 12 February 1990) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Melbourne Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL). He is the current senior coach of the Fitzroy Stars in the Northern Football Netb ...

, who played 159 games for in the

Australian Football League The Australian Football League (AFL) is the pre-eminent professional sports, professional competition of Australian rules football. It was originally named the Victorian Football League (VFL) and was founded in 1896 as a breakaway competition ...

(AFL), was announced in October 2024 as the Stars' senior men's coach for the 2025 season. He replaced former player Lionel Proctor.

Notes

References

External links