Fitzroy Gold Lion Member Marco Mazzilli has supported the Roys since moving to Melbourne as a nine-year-old in 1978. These days Marco again calls Rome home, but his connection with Fitzroy remains unbroken.

Sometimes it only takes a handful of years to forge a lifelong passion, and that’s the case with Marco Mazzilli. And despite moving back to Rome in 1982 after living in Melbourne for four years as a young boy, Marco’s connection with the Fitzroy Football Club is as strong as ever.

“I moved to Melbourne with my family when my father, who was working for the Italian Minister of Foreign Affairs, was transferred to the Italian Consulate in Melbourne for a few years,” says Marco.

“We first lived in Hawthorn for a couple of months but soon moved to North Balwyn, so my love for the Roys doesn’t come from anything connected to an area close to the Brunswick Street Oval.”

“I became a Fitzroy supporter mainly thanks to a language teacher who was tutoring in English in an evening school that my mum and dad attended. Being only nine at the time, they took me and my younger sister with them.

“The teacher was a very passionate Fitzroy supporter and I started following the club that, by the way, had some wonderful players at that time!”

Back in 1982, it was extremely difficult to stay close to the club and the action. In fact Marco reckons it was a real nightmare. Thankfully, these days the internet and social media makes it easy.

“I try to use anything available on the web to keep in touch with what's going on with the club,” Marco says. “From the other side of the world, I can honestly say you’re all doing a great job keeping the Roys spirit alive.

“What you’re doing is dealing with something that can be considered to be a real and living monument in the city of Melbourne, one that needs to be treasured.

“And when it comes to monuments, I can tell you that living in Rome, I know what I'm talking about!”

It’s Membership Month so, Roys supporters, join Marco and renew or take out a Fitzroy Football Club membership for season 2024. As our Men’s senior teams enter the fray in the Premier division of the Victorian Amateur Football Association for the first time in the modern history of the club, there’s never been a more important time to support the Roys.