Former Brisbane coach John Northey has recalled the time he was first informed of his club's merger with Fitzroy at the end of the 1996 season by one of his players.
Northey coached the Bears in 1996 before becoming the first coach of the Brisbane Lions in 1997, but the coach said he wasn't aware of the merger until everything had been finalised.
“I didn’t know what I was getting into (in Brisbane),” Northey told SEN's Dee Tales Podcast.
“We were travelling pretty well at that stage, then the merge took place.
“I knew nothing about the merger going on. I remember going into the rooms one night and Darryl White walked out and he said, “Swooper, the merger’s gone through,” and I said well North Melbourne will be happy with that.
“He said, “No it’s with us” … well you could have knocked me right over.
“(I) did not have a clue…I was very disappointed.”
The two-time Richmond premiership player and former Sydney, Melbourne, Richmond and Brisbane coach also said the entire process between convincing Fitzroy players to head to Brisbane wasn't done properly.
“(Players were selected) only because we went and watched them play. We didn’t go and speak to the club at all (about them),” he said.
“It was just wrong the whole thing.
“You need to be able to go to a club and say, “Who are the best players and who should we get and for what reason,” but we didn’t do any of that and it was more or less all on hearsay.”
Only eight Fitzroy players - including John Barker, Jarrod Molloy and Chris Johnson - made the move to Queensland, and Northey coached just two seasons at the Lions before leaving the club.
