Welcome all Fitzroy Football Club players, members and supporters to the fast-approaching 2024 football season.

This year promises to be the one of the most exciting in the very long history of our club.

Never before has our Senior Men’s side played in the top Premier Division of the VAFA – commonly known as A Grade.

After the team won that stunning preliminary final and automatic promotion to A Grade, we have rarely taken the collective smiles off our faces.

Simply put it is the greatest achievement of our Men’s team in the modern era. No one will ever forget that moment when the siren sounded on preliminary final day, and we realised the dream had come true.

Now here we are in February, and we can report that the excitement is still very real.

The players have been training the house down since November and numbers on the track have regularly exceeded 80 since the new year sessions began.

We have a lot of new and exciting faces who will all undoubtedly play a major role in our on-field efforts in 2024.

In further great news we will have the Fitzroy Under 19s team back on the ground to guarantee our longer-term future. These young players are an outstanding group and some of them look ready and built to come into senior selection calculations as the season progresses.

Our new Senior Coach, Travis Ronaldson, has really struck a chord with the players and the training sessions have been excellent to watch as the team starts to gel together. Travis is a very impressive coach and supporters will love watching the football the team will play under his guidance this year.

Last week, I went to a pre-season information conference attended by all VAFA clubs. The goodwill and well wishes from many other clubs were very encouraging. Everyone recognises that new ground has been broken with Fitzroy making the VAFA top grade. We are the only non-school or university aligned club in the premier division.

It is our greatest strength. We are a community club run by the wider community of Fitzroy for the people of Fitzroy and all those who support us.

In 2024 we will celebrate the tenth season of our magnificent Fitzroy Women’s team. From those early games in 2015 to grand finals in 2016 and 2022, this team has come a very long way.

In 2023, foundation players Liz Olney, Lex Madden and Luci Murphy all played their 100^th games for the club. These champions together with other long serving players have been the backbone of this team.

Over the last couple of seasons, we have also had a huge injection of young and very exciting players from the Fitzroy Juniors. There’ll be more of that in 2024 and we will very keenly watch the progress and success of the Women’s team under the astute coaching of club legend Nathan Jumeau.

With all of this good news in mind every Fitzroy supporter has cause for excitement in 2024.

In saying that, though, we are going to need everyone on board playing a role with us to make the new season the success that our club richly deserves.

We know it is going to be a real step up in both professionalism and talent for our men’s team. But we won’t be taking any backward steps – ever! Our coaches, players, Board and supporters are very ready and up for the challenge.

The Roys won the right to play in the top grade and we deserve to be there. We will cheerfully embrace the good things throughout the year and doubly embrace and learn from the tougher moments if they come our way.

To do all of that we need you all to be with us all the way. If you haven’t renewed your membership, we would love it if you could do so soon. If you’re a supporter that hasn’t taken out a membership, it would be great to have you onboard to help us out.

We need you to come to our games to swell the crowd numbers and cheer loudly as our men and women proudly run onto the ground in their maroon and blue guernseys to represent our club and everything we hold so dear.

Last year we recognised the 140^th anniversary of the Fitzroy Football Club. This year, together with the 10^th anniversary of our Women’s team, we will also have some major celebrations to mark the 70^th anniversary of the wonderful University Reds/Fitzroy Reds. The Redders and their history have played an integral role in the ongoing survival of the modern Fitzroy club and will be a big part of our push in 2024.

The level of pride we have in all aspects of our club is something to behold. Whether we be old Fitzroy, old Reds, Fitzroy locals, people who have come through from the wonderful Fitzroy Junior Football Club or people that have somehow arrived at the club through other means and simply love it - WE ARE FITZROY.

Get behind YOUR club in 2024 and let’s all enjoy the ride together.

David Leydon

President