Historical information

This is a set of 25 colour photographs of Army Survey Regiment’s Australian Rules football team – the Fortuna Lions aka “Fortuna Fumblers”, taken at Seymour Victoria in 1983. The 26th item is a A4 paper document detailing the history of Fortuna Football Club from 1978 to 1993. The Fortuna Lions competed in the Puckapunyal Area Football Association for several years from 1978 to 1984 and in 1983, fielded a great team it managed to reach the Grand Final. Held at the neutral ground at Kings Park, Seymour, the match was an incredibly exciting and bruising contest played in damp conditions and ended in a draw. Dave Lawler’s spectacular mark was a highlight. Due to heavy rain during the following week, the Grand Final replay was held the following week in even heavier conditions. The Fortuna Lions prevailed in the replay with an emphatic victory. The team’s leaders were Eddie Jacobs (coach), Rhys De Laine (captain), Greg Else (vice-captain), and Ken Slater (manager). See items 6244.27P and 6274.7P for more photographs taken at the two grand finals. Although not part of the photo collection, the team photo with names .24P and a photo of the premiership banner .25P are included. The team changed its name to the Fortuna Falcons and its guernsey to gold with a blue ‘V’ in 1988 and continued to compete in the competition up to 1995.

Physical description

This is a set of 25 photographs of Army Survey Regiment’s Australian Rules football team – the Fortuna Lions aka “Fortuna Fumblers”, taken at Seymour Victoria in 1983. The 26th item is a A4 paper document detailing the history of Fortuna Football Club from 1978 to 1993. The photographs were printed on photographic paper They are part of the Army Survey Regiment’s Collection. The photographs were scanned at 300 dpi and the document at 200 dpi. Fortuna’s footballers named below are in Fitzroy jumpers.
.1) - Photo, colour. 1983. L to R: Nick Van Dalen, Jim Ash, Dennis Learmonth, Greg Higgins, Dave Lawler.
.2) - Photo, colour. 1983. L to R: Terry McIntyre, Andy Godden, Rod Skidmore, Alan Staley, Carmel Butler, Gayle Humphrey.
.3) - Photo, colour. 1983. L to R: Greg Else, Doug Home, Wendy Leitinger, Leah Hoffman, Carmel Butler, Ken Talbot-Smith.
.4) - Photo, colour. 1983. L to R: Leah Hoffman, Carmel Butler, Kristin Skidmore, Neville Carr, Brian Fauth on right of banner.
.5) - Photo, colour. 1983. L to R: Dave Lawler, Larry Thompson, Rod Skidmore, Greg Higgins, Gayle Humphrey.
.6) and .7) - Photo, colour. 1983. Army Survey Regiment, 1st Armoured Regiment and officials line up before game.
.8) - Photo, colour. 1983. L to R: unidentified (x2), Kristin Skidmore, Carmel Fauth, Leah Hoffman, Wendy Leitinger, Gayle Humphrey, Di Weston, unidentified, Rob Straube.
.9) and .10) - Photo, colour. 1983. Competition’s individual award recipients. Eddie Jacobs in white shorts.
.11) and .12) - Photo, colour. 1983. Fortuna’s supporters on boundary.
.13) to .15) - Photo, colour. 1983. All players unidentified.
.16) - Photo, colour. 1983. Dave Lawler launches to take a spectacular mark.
.17) - Photo, colour. 1983. L to R: Stu Ridge (No.2) Eddie Jacobs (No.16), and (No.9).
.18) - Photo, colour. 1983. L to R: unidentified (No.9), unidentified, Alan Staley (No.7).
.19) - Photo, colour. 1983. L to R: Alan Staley (No.7), unidentified (No.17), unidentified, unidentified (No.9), Greg Higgins (No.20).
.20) - Photo, colour. 1983. All players unidentified.
.21) - Photo, colour. 1983. Peter Jones (No.5)
.22) - Photo, colour. 1983. L to R: Greg Higgins (No.20), unidentified, Alan Staley (No.7).
.23) - Photo, colour. 1983. L to R: Unidentified, Greg Byers (No.19).
.24) - Photo, colour. 1983. Fortuna Football Club Team Photo.
.25) - Banner, colour. 1983. Fortuna Football Club Premiership Banner.
.26) - Document, black & white. 1993. History of Fortuna Football Club from 1978 to 1993.

Inscriptions & markings

.1P to .23P – no annotations
.24P – Members of team named on bottom
.26 - A4 size paper document of the team’s history.