The Death of Fitzroy Football Club is an oral history, outlining the reasons why Fitzroy FC, one of the founding clubs of the VFL in 1896, lost its way and eventually was merged with the Brisbane Bears. The book covers the spread of years from the seventies, through a period when the club was strong on the field in the early eighties, to the club's death, at the end of the 1996 season. Fitzroy FC never had a chance when the VFL moved into the professional era. Despite its heritage, despite some of its champion players and coaches, it never had the financial wherewithal to survive. The beginning of the end can be traced to the seventies, when finances became tight, and the club's best players had to be traded for cash. The author has curated contemporaneous interviews from Inside Football magazine and other publications, together with interviews with those intimately involved in the club's final days, including the AFL's CEO, Ross Oakley, who oversaw the club's final merge with the Brisbane Bears. The book describes the emotional fallout that saw families split, and supporters discarding their relationship with the AFL game.

In 1996, the 113-year-old Fitzroy Football Club played its final game in the AFL. Financial pressures brought about by the steady professionalisation of the AFL respected neither the worth of the club's history nor the passion of its fans. Out of time and money, on 4 July 1996 Fitzroy was forced into a merger with the Brisbane Bears - creating the League's first, and thus far only, merged club. MERGER tells the story of that fateful year, from boardroom drama and intrigue to the wind and mud of the Whitten Oval, capturing the profound tragedy of Fitzroy's doomed plight. 'The demise of Fitzroy is a deep wound rather than a scar. A tear in the fabric of the game that will never truly repair.' - from the Foreword by Gerard Whateley

In 1996, the Fitzroy Football Club, the Roys, played their final game of AFL football after more than a hundred and ten years in the competition. Maroon & Blue is a social and oral history that captures the rich story of the Roys in the words of those who played for, supported and loved the club. It celebrates various aspects of the club's roots, culture and traditions, captures the passion and joy for all things Roy, and offers heartfelt observations on the sacrifice of the club at the altar of corporate AFL football. Lovingly crafted from hundreds of hours of interviews and archival research, Maroon & Blue features the words and voices of: Paul Roos, Jonathan Brown, Chris Johnson, Martin Pike, Bill Stephen, George Coates, Ron Alexander, Jamie Cooper, Bill Jacobs, Greg Champion, Barry Dickins, Martin Flanagan, John Blackman, Peter Temple, Jas H. Duke, Ken Morgan and many more.