AFL grand final: Why do the Lions sing their song to the tune of the French national anthem? Was Collingwood named after a pub?

There are many issues that footy followers take without any consideration that the vaguely discover a bit of bit odd.

Is it bizarre that all of us collect round and sing natty little ditties collectively at any time when our staff wins? Most likely.

Is it odd that we followers really feel a deep loyalty to suburbs and cities that many people have by no means spent that a lot time in, not to mention lived in, notably when these golf equipment are now not bodily hooked up to the locations anymore? Perhaps.

However that’s the fantastic thing about sport — it is a tribal coming collectively of people that share the identical pursuits, the identical passions, and the identical towering highs that masks the cavernous lows.

At the moment, because the Brisbane Lions tackle Collingwood within the remaining match of the season, we true believers welcome everybody into the fold to expertise that feeling.

When you may infuriatingly seek advice from it as ‘sportsball’, you are greater than welcome to hitch within the conversations. This is just a few simple speaking factors to get you rolling.

Why is the Brisbane Lions theme music based mostly on the French nationwide anthem?

Sacre bleu!

As it is so poetically placed on Wikipedia, La Marseillaise is “a revolutionary music, an anthem to freedom, a patriotic name to mobilise all of the residents and an exhortation to combat towards tyranny and international invasion.”

It is also a footy music belted out by burly athletes after a match, fully out of tune resulting from mentioned athletes being effectively and actually knackered by the point the sport is over.

Written by Fitzroy Corridor of Fame inductee Invoice Stephen on a 1952 finish of season journey to Perth, the Lions model of the French nationwide anthem is without doubt one of the few issues that is still of the outdated membership after the 1997 merger between Fitzroy and the Brisbane Bears.

Stephen and his teammates, who had simply watched Casablanca, have been impressed by the scene the place the French drown out the Nazis in a present of croissantational patriotism.

“I had gone (to Perth) with Victorian sides the 2 earlier years. I used to be impressed with the Collingwood music, everybody belted it out, and everybody belted out the North Melbourne music which was later adopted by the Victorian facet,” Stephen would later say.

“We actually did not have a music that united us at Fitzroy, and I had simply been to the photographs to see Casablanca and was impressed by the scene within the restaurant.

“The Germans have been belting out their Nazi music, and a few bloke began singing this French music. Step by step all of the French joined in and overwhelmed the Germans with their voice. I used to be very impressed with the music, La Marseillaise.

“As we have been in a carriage on our option to the West having a booze-up, I instructed the boys that we wanted a superb music and gave them the tune to La Marseillaise.

“Anyway, I needed all of the boys to assist make up the music. I began them off with the primary line, which was ‘we’re the boys from Fitzroy my lads’, then I went to all of the others and every gave me a distinct line.

“We will need to have sung it 30,000 instances by the point we acquired residence a fortnight later. That music saved Fitzroy individuals alive throughout our unhealthy days. Individuals used to sing it, and sing it, and sing it.”

The French authorities initially complained about its use, earlier than they have been assured the tune was a particular tribute — or one thing.

“I later obtained a telephone name from the French Embassy concerning the music, however instructed them to not be upset that we adopted their music. It was a tribute,” Stephen mentioned.

“After we defined that we chosen it out of all the opposite songs, they accepted it.”

The place did the Collingwood theme music come from?

Do not inform Collingwood followers, however there’s one thing spine-tingling about listening to the Magpies theme music bellowed across the MCG.

Written by three-game Collingwood veteran Tom Nelson in 1906 on a membership tour of Tasmania, the music is predicated on “Goodbye Dolly Grey”, a tune from the Spanish-American Battle that turned common as a Boer Battle anthem.

A journalist from the Collingwood Observer, who was travelling with the staff, described the music by saying “the feelings are very fairly and the Tasmanians have been delighted with them, however the concepts are too assured for the author’s liking.”

After about 80 years the hierarchy on the Pies agreed, and altered the confident lyrics of “oh, the premiership’s a cakewalk” to “there is only one staff we favour”, earlier than realising that was even worse, and so they modified it again.

Was Collingwood named after a pub?

It could be a noble and virtuous story if the suburb of Collingwood was named instantly after Cuthbert Collingwood, the naval hero who partnered Lord Nelson on a number of nice victories within the Napoleonic Wars.

However that is not the Collingwood manner. The suburb was named after a pub — perhaps.

There’s some conjecture round this, however the authentic pub within the space then recognized merely as Newtown was completely named after Baron Cuthbert Collingwood.

So, to be able to put two and two collectively and give you a sum whole that equals an fascinating yarn, it could possibly be truthful to imagine that because the pub was there first, and the pub was known as The Collingwood, that the surveyors — presumably over a pint or three — determined to call suburb after the pub.

Whether or not that is true or not is up for debate, nevertheless it makes for a pleasant speaking level.

What was Fitzroy named after? And Brisbane, for that matter?

For many who do not know, the roots of the Brisbane Lions will at all times be linked to the suburb of Fitzroy, a founding member of the VFL that merged with the Brisbane Bears in 1997.

Melbourne’s first suburb (together with Collingwood) was named after Sir Charles Augustus FitzRoy, Governor of New South Wales from 1846 to 1855.

Now, in order for you a little bit of geek enjoyable in your life, go to Sir Charles’s Wikipedia web page and click on by to his father’s web page, then to his father’s father’s web page and so forth. The altering portraits of a protracted lineage of FitzRoy’s are literally fairly cool.

Sir Charles, whose half-brother was the captain of the HMS Beagle of Charles Darwin fame, was the son Basic Lord Charles FitzRoy, a military officer and politician.

He was the son of Augustus FitzRoy, the British prime minister from 1768 to 1770.

He was the son of Lord Augustus FitzRoy, an important participant within the naval theatre of the Battle of Austrian Succession.

He was the son of Charles FitzRoy, 2nd Duke of Grafton, a distant relative of Princess Diana and a outstanding Lord.

He was the son of Henry FitzRoy, 1st Duke of Grafton, and a key participant within the Revolution of 1688.

And he was the illegitimate son of King Charles II, who was notable for being King Charles II.

FitzRoy as a reputation, for what it is price, was first heard round 1519 when King Henry VIII gave it to his son Henry. “Fitz” is a Norman-French time period like “Mac” to imply “son of” (like Fitzpatrick or Fitzgerald), whereas Roy is an anglicised type of “roi” which means King.

So Henry VIII’s first son was actually “Henry, son of King”, simply in case the lecturers acquired him combined up with different Henrys within the kindergarten.

The settlement of Brisbane was named after the Brisbane River that flows by it, which in flip was named after Sir Thomas Brisbane, the governor of New South Wales from 1821 to 1825.

And the phrase ‘Brisbane’ is assumed to have come from the Scottish language, which means ‘to interrupt bone’, which does not naked interested by with regards to taking part in footy.

When did Brisbane turn into often called the Lions?

Not like the Hawthorn Mayblooms and the Geelong Pivotonians, the place their outdated nicknames have been type of garbage, Fitzroy’s authentic nickname of the ‘Gorillas’ is one that ought to have caught.

Utilizing the gorilla as a mascot from the late-30s till 1957, the membership then determined they wanted an animal that was extra fear-inducing. It’s unclear if that they had ever seen an image of a gorilla at that time.

Re-nicknamed the Lions, Fitzroy went on to report 4 many years of mediocrity, by no means once more making the grand remaining earlier than being pressured right into a merger with Brisbane on the finish of 1996.

Brisbane earlier than that time had been often called the infinitely uninspiring Bears.

And it was uninspiring for a number of causes.

For one, their mascot was fairly clearly a koala, not a bear. For 2, koalas are lazy little buggers that largely eat, sleep, and get excessive on eucalyptus leaves. And for 3, the brand appeared like an aggravated, cross-eyed koala that had simply been stung within the face by a bee.

Fortunately, the Bears nickname died a fast dying by that merger in 1997 and so they inherited Fitzroy’s mistake as a substitute.