Fitzroy was one of the most successful clubs over the league's first three decades, contesting 19 finals series and winning a league-high seven premierships in that time.

The Fitzroy Football Club was formed at a meeting at the Brunswick Hotel on 26 September 1883, at a time when Melbourne's population was rapidly increasing.

They quickly became one of the most successful clubs, drawing large crowds to their home at the Brunswick Street Oval in Edinburgh Gardens, and consistently in the top four and winning the VFA premiership in 1895.

Brownlow Medals were also won by Wilfred Smallhorn and Dinny Ryan, while Jack Moriarty set many goalkicking records.

It was in this year, under captain-coach Fred Hughson, that the Gorillas won their eighth VFL flag against Richmond in front of a capacity crowd at Junction Oval.

Nevertheless, the club continued to produce great individual players over this period, including Brownlow Medallists Allan Ruthven and Kevin Murray.

They had held discussions with the Northcote and Preston VFA clubs and also had approached the Heidelberg Council about relocating to the Olympic Training Ground.

[14] From 1967 to 1969, the club moved their home games to Carlton's Princes Park while keeping their training and administration at the Brunswick Street Oval.

Further problems with the Cricket Club and the high cost of rent imposed by Carlton saw Fitzroy move to the Junction Oval in 1970, where they had a short-lived promising start to the decade.

This success occurred under the coaching of Robert Walls and David Parkin, with players such as 1981 Brownlow Medallist Bernie Quinlan, Ron Alexander, Garry Wilson, Gary Pert and Paul Roos.

[16] The club was evicted from Junction Oval at the end of 1984 after a fifteen-year tenure, and entered another nomadic period of existence.

As well as trying several fund-raising ventures, the Lions experimented with playing four home matches in Tasmania in 1991 and 1992 to avoid a takeover bid by the Brisbane Bears[23] but lost money in the process.

Amid uncertainties about the financial future of the club, its on-field performances continued to deteriorate, to the point where the Lions finished last by a long way in 1995 and 1996, winning just three matches in those seasons combined.

With financial and on–field performance issues plaguing the club and with Port Adelaide due to enter the AFL in 1997 requiring a team to either merge or fold to make way for them, the writing for Fitzroy was on the wall.

Negotiations for elements such as club colours, guernsey and song were to be settled by the morning of 4 July by the Fitzroy board.

It was commonly thought, and claimed by then Richmond president Leon Daphne, that an all-Victorian merge would create a superteam with on-field and off-field strength out of all proportion to the rest of the league.

This is compared with the Brisbane Lions bid, which proposed a 44-player senior list for 1997, and did not have the potential off-field strength of an all-Victorian merge.

Then North Melbourne CEO Greg Miller has accused the AFL of contriving the two bids in this manner to manufacture a result which would fulfil its strategic direction to strengthen the game in Queensland.

[28] During this time, senior coach Mick Nunan resigned after Fitzroy's game against Essendon on 6 July and was replaced by Alan McConnell for his second stint in just twelve months.

The club played its final VFL/AFL game the following week on 1 September against Fremantle at Subiaco Oval, losing by 86 points.

The university (Fitzroy) Reds terminated its membership of the VAFA and was wound up as an incorporated company and football club.

In 2015 the club initiated in a partnership with the Australian Catholic University to start fielding a women's team in the VWFL under the name of Fitzroy-ACU.

[34] In 2003, the then-Fitzroy Reds played the curtain-raiser at the MCG when the Brisbane Lions met the Collingwood Magpies in the AFL Heritage Round, and from 2008 Brisbane started wearing a version of Fitzroy's AFL guernsey with red instead of maroon in most matches played in Victoria, consistent with Fitzroy's most recent colours.