Biography
Bernard Francis Quinlan was born on 21 July 1951 in Traralgon, Victoria, and grew up in the Gippsland region that also produced Gary Ablett Sr and Michael Voss. He joined Footscray from Traralgon in 1969, making his debut against Fitzroy at Whitten Oval – the very club he would later join and for whom he would produce his greatest football. He was 17 years old and kicked four goals in that first game, an early glimpse of the extraordinary scoring instinct that would define his career.
His nine seasons at Footscray from 1969 to 1977 produced 177 games and 241 goals and established him as one of the better forwards in the competition – talented, athletic and equipped with a boot that opponents respected. He won the club’s leading goalkicker award in 1971 and was a reliable contributor without quite fulfilling the potential that his natural gifts suggested.
The move to Fitzroy in 1978 changed everything. Whether it was the new environment, or simply the natural maturing of a footballer who had always been more skilled than his output suggested, Quinlan found another level at Fitzroy entirely. He settled at centre half-forward initially before moving to full forward in his peak years, and the scoring returns became extraordinary. His kicking – already exceptional – became one of the most discussed in the competition. He was capable of accurately kicking goals from 65 metres and could torpedo the ball reliably from well beyond that, earning “Superboot” as a nickname that needed no further explanation.
The 1981 season was his individual breakthrough – 73 goals for the season, the Brownlow Medal shared with South Melbourne’s Barry Round, and the his first Fitzroy leading goalkicker award. He was 30 years old. In 1983 he kicked 116 goals – a Fitzroy club record – and won the Coleman Medal. In 1984 he kicked 105 goals and won it again. His average of 3.69 goals per game across his final six Fitzroy seasons from 1981 to 1986 represents a sustained level of forward dominance without parallel among high-volume key forwards.
He retired at the end of the 1986 season with 366 games and 817 goals – 10th highest in the history of the competition and a goals per game average of 2.23 that reflects the extraordinary efficiency of his peak years. He is the only player in VFL/AFL history to kick 100 goals twice, play more than 300 games and win a Brownlow Medal, and he achieved all three distinctions after his 30th birthday. He was an inaugural inductee into the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996 and was named at centre half-forward in the Fitzroy Team of the Century.
