The guest speaker at the Luncheon will be one of the Club's favorite sons of the 1970's and 1980's - GARRY WILSON.

Garry Wilson, the courageous former Fitzroy rover, is one of Fitzroy's most distingished players. He was knocked around so much that he played the final years of his career wearing a helmet, which was unusual in the early 1980s, but it was a feature that made him well known amongst the footballing public. He says he was knocked out five or six times and, on about 20 occasions, finished a match with blurred vision. But the repeated blows have done nothing to dampen his talent for figures.

Wilson made his debut with Fitzroy in 1971, aged 17 being paid the princely sum of $35 a week. He won his first best and fairest award in 1972, when he was 18. In all, he won five best and fairests in his 268-game career with Fitzroy with 7 finals appearances. He finished third in the 1978 Brownlow Medal and second the following year. It’s not hard to glean that he would have liked a little Brownlow medal in his trophy room. "Everyone would like to win one," Wilson says. It’s notable that Wilson played the last few years of his career as a professional - one of the first in the VFL-AFL. He spent his weekdays swimming and going to medicos to enable him to get over injuries. He wanted to milk as much as possible out of his career, which finished in 1984 when he was 31. "I probably worked as hard as anyone," he says. "I think I got the most out of myself."