WESTERN Victoria's most decorated football coach has a new important distinction to add to his resume: North Ballarat Hall of Famer.
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The accolade is well-earned recognition for one of the great coaching careers in Ballarat and Victorian Football League history.
This season marks seven years since Gerard FitzGerald's drawn-out controversial and highly publicised sacking from the helm of the only country club to claim a VFL premiership flag.
And the Roosters won three consecutive VFL premierships with FitzGerald as coach.
It was a parting of the ways that split the club, two years before the Roosters exited VFL ranks completely.
Let us hope to homage goes some way to repairing relationships.
FitzGerald coached 345 VFL games, starting with the Roosters in 1997 before a move to Springvale (now known as Casey Demons) in 2003, taking Port Melbourne to a grand final in 2004 and returning to the Roosters in 2007 after a two-year hiatus coaching the Rebels' under-18 talent program.
He holds the VFA/VFL coaching record, surpassing Bill Faul's 313-game tally in 2014 - Faul's record had stood for almost 60 years.
FitzGerald spent more than a decade coaching country clubs Sea Lake, Mortlake and Camperdown before stepping up to the VFL. He always championed pathways for country players to take their games to the highest level they could - and North Ballarat Roosters offered a chance to play against the best in the state and AFL listed players in a regional town, while pursuing further education or a trade.
We can rue what is lost for this city and region. But we can also celebrate the legacies people like FitzGerald and his flock of Roosters - not just those from the premiership era - continue to have in developing football across the region, wherever they have landed.
In his final post-match address as Roosters coach, FitzGerald spoke of respect for the game, respect for club relationships and respect for history.
FitzGerald also thanked the club for giving a country football coach, "a bit of an unknown lad", the chance to help take the club and the region to the next level, to "have a go in the VFL".
North Ballarat Football Netball Club's rich sporting history drew the admiration of highly-respected Greater Western Sydney Giant Phil Davis during the Giants' impromptu home game at Mars Stadium last year.
The Northie's honour roll includes AFL greats such as Tony Lockett, who holds the AFL goalkicking record (1360 goals) and Michael Malthouse, who holds the record for the most AFL games coached (718 matches). They were names long before the Roosters hit the state league stage and part of a club history dating back to 1882.
FitzGerald's coaching impact is a key part of this history.
"We can create history. This is our time" was the Roosters' 2008 grand final week motto, leading into the game-changing win for country football.
Victory was bigger than a coach or a club, but it is only right the coach, as a key driver in that win, deserves this Hall of Fame recognition.
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