Brunswick played in the Victorian Football Association (VFA) from 1897 until 1991, when it withdrew midway early in the season and folded shortly after.

The club was colloquially known in its early days as the Pottery Workers[1] or the Brickfielders, and its fans were known for sounding clayhole bells at matches;[2][3] after changing their colours from light blue and red colors to black and white, they became informally, and then later formally, known as the Magpies.

They won the first of their three 1st division premierships in 1909 which started a successful era for the club under former Essendon player Jack McKenzie.

Brunswick was one of several inner suburban VFA clubs whose off-field viability deteriorated through the late 1970s and early 1980s, in large part due to demographic shifts in the local area towards a higher migrant population which was largely uninterested in Australian rules football,[7] and at different times the club was heavily in debt and appeared likely to fold.

[8] However, factional infighting between Brunswick and Broadmeadows members of the club's unwieldy 14-man board of directors distracted from any efforts to clear the club's debt (prompting the VFA to intervene and sack the board in August 1990),[9] and the on-field position deteriorated dramatically after there was an exodus of 35 players in the 1990/91 offseason due to owing player payments;[10] on 6 May 1991, after three enormous losses to start the 1991 season, the club withdrew from the VFA,[11] and folded soon after.