St Bede's Mentone flexed their muscles and piled on the goals against Fitzroy's Under 19 side last weekend, working their way into fourth spot.

It was a very difficult day for the Roy Boys who suffered a 105 point loss at Brindisi Street.

Rory Patterson, John Jorgensen and Marcel Laidlaw, continued to provide avenues to goal, as they have done all season and between them kicked the team's five goals.

Patterson was best for Fitzroy with Liam O'Connor and Noah Wright putting in a huge effort for the day.

The challenge now is to stay focused and take as much as possible out of the season with four games left and unfortunately no chance of playing finals. This weekend the team will take on University Blues, which will be a tough contest as the Blues still have a rough chance at making the four.

Both Fitzroy-ACU teams turned on some excellent footy against Old Xaverians on Sunday.

In their final home and away game, Fitzroy-ACU Reserves tuned up nicely for the finals with a dominant performance but will be doing some goal kicking practice during their bye week, after returning a scoreline of 5.17.47 to one point.

Tess Plant-Thomas was simply outstanding with three of the team’s five goals. She was well supported by her captain Rachael Telfer, who is getting stronger with each game after an injury affected season, Susie Worthington, Martha Loughnane and Siobhan Williams.

The team benefitted from having Bridie Murphy back in the engine-room, after a few weeks with the Senior side, and despite copping several heavy knocks, she kept throwing herself back into the contest.

With a bye giving them an automatic four points, this weekend all eyes will be on the result of the game between Marcellin (first) and Caufield Grammarians (third), which will determine the make-up of the final four.

Fitzroy-ACU will be looking for Marcellin to win big and make up a deficit of 19 per cent, which is what is currently keeping them from hosting a home final.

Meanwhile, despite missing a finals spot this year, the Senior side is finishing the season strongly and really turned it on after quarter time against Old Xavs on Sunday.

Kicking four goals to one in the second quarter with the wind and scoring one whilst keeping Xavier goalless against it in the Third, were the two big keys to breaking the game open for Fitzroy-ACU.

The final quarter was all attacking with plenty of highlights as the Roys’ scored 3.5 for the quarter.

There were strong performances across the ground, but Lucy Kerr (1 goal) continued to star, along with Jess Hayes, Alex Monacella (2 goals), Camille Augustin, Alice Batterton (playing her 50th game) and Erin Gogerly (2 goals) were named as the best for the day. It was in fact a very even contribution, with Freya Shearer also looking the goods in her first Senior game, kicking a goal for good measure. Hillary Collett kicked a couple of beauties and Liz Olney also hit the scoreboard, playing an excellent defensive game in the forward 50, bringing the ball to ground for her teammates throughout.

The pics in the top gallery are a small selection from Don Gogerly.

This weekend is the final game for Fitzroy-ACU Seniors and unfortunately the game time has been changed due to a clash on the Old Trinity grounds. The game against Old Trinity will now be played at 12pm at Daley Oval at Trinity Grammar, Bulleen Rd, Bulleen.

They cannot finish lower than fifth in a season that had the team frustratingly on the wrong side of a number of close losses and a draw. But as always, there have been plenty of highlights. Check out this week’s Risk Care Round up to get a great sense of their best footy.

This weekend you will see Fitzroy’s teams in pale blue socks denoting that we are participating in the VAFA’s Thick & Think round to raise awareness and start conversations about mental health.

You may have seen some coverage during the week of a campaign launched by Headspace, encouraging young men to talk about their mental health and wellbeing, featuring Western Bulldogs player Tom Boyd (you can read about it here: https://www.theage.com.au/sport/afl/couldn-t-sleep-couldn-t-train-boyd-opens-up-on-mental-health-issues-20180724-p4zt7t.html).

Part of the aim of this weekend’s round is to create an opportunity for a mental health focus; to encourage conversations and normalisation of mental health concerns so there can be greater awareness of the signs of mental health issues and the ability to point people in the direction of help.

Fitzroy players, like many other VAFA players and clubs this week, have taken the opportunity to start their own conversations about these issues.

If you feel you or someone you know could use it, here are some great tips from Headspace about maintaining your mental health. While it’s addressed to young men, the advice is good for everyone: https://headspace.org.au/headcoach

After years serving in the Australian Defence Force, including stints in Iraq and Afghanistan, Dan Cairnes and mate and fellow serving officer Dave Farrell are rebuilding their lives in Australia and assisting other military veterans to do the same.

On Saturday 11 August, at the lunch that precedes Fitzroy’s match against old foes Ivanhoe, you’ll have the privilege of hearing from veterans Dan Cairnes and Dave Farrell.

Dan and Dave will share their experiences of life during and after their distinguished military careers, and explain how their work as founders of social enterprise, Veterans in Construction, is assisting returned servicemen and women at one of the riskiest times in their lives, ironically, their return home.

Some people casually liken the football field to a battle ground. But in their heart of hearts they know that such a comparison is as fake as anything Trump and his detractors could trump up.

Dan Cairnes thinks there are some comparisons that pass muster though. “The leadership and resilience displayed in football definitely has crossovers into your professional and personal endeavours,” he says.

“The military trains its people hard, often to failure. The reason for this is that you learn by your mistakes.

“When the time comes for you to do it for real, worst case it doesn’t come as an absolute shock. Best case, it’s easy.”

Dan says that following Aussie Rules while in the Army was hard at times, particularly in the northern states where Rugby and League have a greater following.

“But communication for deployed personnel has improved dramatically these days,” he says, “so service personnel know exactly what’s happening in the sporting world back home.”

Now a local living in Carlton North and with a number of kids in his street play in the junior grades, Dan’s been able to catch a home game at Brunswick Street Oval.

So now that he’s within a stone’s throw, we plan on recruiting Dan as a regular Roys’ supporter.

After all, as he says, “games at BSO means you’re close to the action, and you can soak up the rich history of the ground all against the wonderful backdrop of the city.”

What could be better?

Military biographies
Dan Cairnes
Dan served in the Australian Defence Force for over a decade where he fulfilled a variety of regimental, training and operational appointments as an Army Officer. His operational service includes nine months in Iraq during the summer of 2005, where he provided specialist mentoring and coaching to an Iraqi Army unit.

Dave Farrell MG
Dave had a distinguished career in the Australian Army serving over 17 years. The majority of his career he spent in the Special Air Service Regiment (SAS) until his discharge a couple of years ago.
Dave deployed to Afghanistan on six occasions and has spent more than two years all up in this combat zone. He has also deployed to other various and exotic locations with the SAS.
During Dave’s first deployment to Afghanistan, his unit was ambushed by a numerically superior foe. During this encounter, Dave was put into the unenviable position of ‘fight or die’. Dave chose the first option and was subsequently awarded the Medal for Gallantry (MG) for his acts of bravery.

Bookings for lunch are open now.

You will not want to miss Fitzroy’s traditional Mystery Ball Games Night in the Community Rooms at BSO from 7pm on 11 August.

It’s a night of fun and games run by the players but we can’t give too much away. You are invited to join the extravaganza and $50 will buy you a ticket in the BIG game.

You can purchase tickets online. Your ticket price will include the games, your first three drinks, finger food, tea/coffee and music. After that beer, wine and soft drinks will be at our usual bar prices.

This is a great night for close friends of the Fitzroy family, so whatever you had planned on 11 August…. reschedule. There are some very good prizes to be won. Book now: https://fitzroyfc.worldsecuresystems.com/BookingRetrieve.aspx?ID=96658

The Fitzroy-ACU Women had the tables turned last week when they had to play coach in a session with the Fitzroy Junior Footy Club Youth Girls side.

There was a strong turnout for the senior and junior Roy Girls to get to know each other a little better and to test out some of the senior drills.

The training session and BBQ at Brunswick Street Oval is just one of several opportunities the players and coaches are creating to achieve greater connections and pathways between the junior and senior clubs.

Nicely done Fitzroy-ACU; let's hope we see some of these young stars following in the steps of Phoebe Turnbull and joining the senior club when they become eligible. A special mention should go to Jess Hayes for her outstanding BBQ skills and Cate Rushan for the photos.

Fitzroy’s annual raffle has gone on sale and with the full finals series tickets (donated by the Brisbane Lions AFC: AFL Authorised GF Promotion Code GFAFL 18/17) on offer and a selling price of just $5 a ticket, you’d better get in quickly.

ALL Fitzroy players in all six teams will have books of tickets to sell so track down your favourite player and put down your vital details.

The second prize is one of Louise Maniatakis’s magnificent Fitzroy-inspired quilts and if you’re a fan of the Fitzroy of old, the quilt has plenty of interest. The stitching detail alone makes this a valuable prize for any Fitzroy fan.

Third prize is from Caltex and is petrol to the value of $300.

Tickets will be on sale at all home games too. The raffle will be drawn at the post match function at Brunswick Street Oval after the Senior men play their final home and away game on Saturday 25 August.