Bernard Francis Quinlan (born 21 July 1951) is a former Australian rules footballer who played for the Footscray Football Club and Fitzroy Football Club in the Victorian Football League (VFL).
One of a handful of players to have won a Brownlow Medal and Coleman Medal, Quinlan was an inaugural inductee in the Australian Football Hall of Fame in 1996. Renowned for his prodigious long kicking, which earned him the nickname "Superboot", Quinlan played his best football late in his career, earning most of his individual accolades after he had turned 30. He holds the record for the most career games without playing in a Grand Final and is one of five VFL/AFL players (the others being Shaun Burgoyne, Heath Shaw, Lance Franklin and Patrick Dangerfield) to have played 150 or more games at two separate clubs.
Playing career
Quinlan was recruited from Traralgon, which was in 's zone, and arrived at Footscray halfway through the 1969 VFL season. Teammate Barry Round also made his debut in the same year, and coincidentally they would tie for the Brownlow Medal 12 years later in 1981, both by that time playing at different clubs.
Quinlan played 177 games for the club, playing mostly at centre half-forward (also occasionally playing as a centre half-back). The 1970s were a tough time financially for the Bulldogs, and many quality players were cleared to other clubs. Quinlan was cleared to in 1978 for 70,000 dollars. In October 1979, Quinlan was fined $500 for missing two training sessions with the Victorian squad the previous month. Quinlan had recently moved to Baxter and complained that he had not been notified in time by Fitzroy, but the VFL's administration manager Alan Schwab dismissed these as "inadequate excuses". In the end, he was left out of the squad going to Perth for the State of Origin Carnival. In December 1979, the Lions and the football public were shocked when it was announced by club president Frank Bibby that Quinlan had told the committee he wanted to devote more time to his farm. With a year remaining on his contract, Fitzroy were desperate to retain his services and made Quinlan a substantial financial offer to stay. Quinlan relented and returned for the 1980 VFL season.
Fitzroy had an ordinary season in 1980. When Robert Walls took over as senior coach for 1981, Quinlan and the Lions returned to form. He won the Brownlow Medal in 1981, tying with his former Bulldog teammate Barry Round (who had left the Bulldogs too by this stage). He also twice kicked more than 100 goals in a season: 1983 and 1984. Quinlan led a formidable forward line in the mid-1980s with the likes of Michael Conlan, Garry Wilson, David McMahon and Gary Sidebottom. Together with Paul Roos and Gary Pert in the back line, they propelled Fitzroy to their most successful years in the post-war era.
He was a prodigious kicker of the football which earned him the nickname "Superboot". He regularly featured in the World of Sport kicking competitions (a sports program which was popular in Melbourne for three decades).