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My Great Uncle, the President of Fitzroy

Growing up, we didn't hear a lot of stories about Dad's side of the family. One I would have thought I would have heard more about was that of Leslie Joseph Phelan, my grandfather's older brother. Les was born in Benalla in 1891 and in 1910 went into the employ of the railways like his father Joseph (as would his brother, my grandfather Stan). That employment would see him posted to Seymour and Maryborough, where he spent the best part of his 20s and 30s. While in Maryborough Les was actively involved in the cricket and football clubs, serving as Secretary in both. He was heavily involved in getting a new Maryborough club up and running and entered into the Ballarat Football League, whose premiership it won in its first year! 



Leslie Phelan, from his Maryborough days

Returning to Melbourne around 1927, Les continued to work in the railways and in 1931 became the president of the Victorian branch of the Railways Union, and served as the Union rep on the Railways Discipline Board. During this period he also must have become involved with the Fitzroy Football Club in the VFL, which was then one of the most successful clubs, behind only Collingwood. Why Fitzroy is an interesting question, given the rest of the Phelan family were staunch Essendon supporters, having lived in and around the Essendon area since Joseph had moved the family to Melbourne around 1906 (perhaps this is one reason Dad never talked much about Les! :) ).

In any case by the late 1930s, Leslie was vice-president of the Fitzroy club. No doubt, his experience in Maryborough (not to mention the Union) would have stood Les in good stead for such a role. Soon he would also become a club delegate to the VFL itself (these were the days when the VFL was made up of representatives of the 12 clubs, and not an independent commission like the AFL of today). After 14 years serving as vice president (some reports suggest 16 or 17), at the start of 1952 Les was appointed the club's President. The club had just said goodbye to its coach Norm Smith, who would go on to lead Melbourne in its greatest era of success in the following decade. One wonders if this was a 'sliding doors' moment, as Fitzroy would not have a lot of success during Les' years in charge, making the finals only three times. Norm's brother Len would coach the club (Norm apparently always thought Len was a better coach!) and the 'Roys in this period would also welcome to the club one of its greatest ever players in Kevin Murray. Another thing Les can apparently take some credit for is the adoption of the moniker 'Lions' in 1957, which it still uses to this day (they had previously been known as the 'Gorillas'). Les would remain in the role for 13 years (as seen in the table below), meaning he served Fitzroy in high positions for at least 27 years - a wonderful record of service!

During this time Les would also have the honour of being the Victorian state team manager for the National Football Carnival in 1953 (and perhaps later years too). It must have been a wonderful experience to accompany the competitions' best talent in tournaments against the best of the other states. Later in his tenure, Les would become a Senior Vice-president of the VFL itself. One of his descendants told me that in the 1960s Les apparently purchased several market gardens at Mulgrave in his own name, before transferring them to the VFL, as part of the league's project to build its own stadium. This would of course be VFL (later Waverley) Park. I was also told that it was after a particularly stormy meeting of the Fitzroy Football Club in late 1964 that Les suffered a stroke - only a few weeks later he would pass away, on 21 January 1965 aged 73. The VFL President Sir Kenneth Luke was in attendance, as was Archbishop Simonds (Les was well regarded in the Catholic community), at the funeral mass said by Les' son, Fr John Phelan - the same 'Father Jack' who married my parents several years earlier. Members of the Fitzroy team formed a guard of honour as Leslie Phelan was laid to rest in the Melbourne General Cemetery.



Excerpt from the Fitzroy Lions Honour roll (https://www.lions.com.au/club/history/fitzroy-lions-history/honour-roll) showing Les' years as President of Fitzroy Football Club, overlapping with the era of champion player Kevin Murray (the columns from left to right list President, Coach, Captain, Club Champion, Leading Goalkicker, Position for each season)


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