Essendon Football Club
Australian rules football club / From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
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The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers, is a professional Australian rules football club. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCracken family in their Ascot Vale home "Alisa", and while the exact date is unknown, it is generally accepted to have been in 1872. The club's first recorded game took place on 7 June 1873 against a Carlton Second 20. From 1878 until 1896, the club played in the Victorian Football Association, then joined seven other clubs in October 1896 to form the breakaway Victorian Football League (later changed to AFL in 1990). Headquartered at the Essendon Recreation Ground, known as Windy Hill, from 1922 to 2013, the club moved to The Hangar in near Tullamarine in late 2013 on land owned by the Melbourne Airport. The club currently plays its home games at either Docklands Stadium or the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Zach Merrett is the current club captain.
| Essendon Football Club | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ||||
| Names | ||||
| Full name | Essendon Football Club[1] | |||
| Nickname(s) | Bombers, Dons, Same Olds | |||
| Motto | Suaviter in Modo, Fortiter in Re "Gently in manner, resolutely in execution" | |||
| 2022 season | ||||
| Home-and-away season | 15th | |||
| Leading goalkicker | Peter Wright (53 goals) | |||
| Club details | ||||
| Founded | 1872; 151 years ago (1872) | |||
| Colours | Red Black | |||
| Competition | AFL: Senior men AFLW: Senior women VFL: Reserves men VFLW: Reserves women VWFL: Wheelchair | |||
| President | David Barham | |||
| Chairman | Vacant | |||
| CEO | Craig Vozzo | |||
| Coach | AFL: Brad Scott AFLW: Natalie Wood VFL: Leigh Tudor VFLW: Travis Cloke | |||
| Captain(s) | AFL: Zach Merrett AFLW: Stephanie Cain/Bonnie Toogood VFL: Daniel Younan VFLW: Mia-Rae Clifford/Georgia Nanscawen VWFL: Louis Rowe | |||
| Premierships | VFL/AFL (16)VFA (4)Reserves/VFL (7)VFLW (1)Championship of Australia (1) | |||
| Ground(s) | AFL: Docklands Stadium (56,347), Melbourne Cricket Ground (100,024) AFLW: Windy Hill (10,000) VFL/VFLW: Windy Hill (10,000), The Hangar (3,500) VWFL: Boroondara Sports Complex | |||
| Former ground(s) | East Melbourne Cricket Ground (1897–1921) | |||
| Windy Hill (1922–91) | ||||
| Training ground(s) | The Hangar (2013–) | |||
| Uniforms | ||||
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| Other information | ||||
| Official website | essendonfc.com.au | |||
Essendon is one of Australia's best-known and most successful football clubs.[2] It has won 16 VFL/AFL premierships, which, along with Carlton, is the most of any club in the competition. The club won four consecutive VFA premierships between 1891 and 1894, a feat unmatched in that competition's history. Essendon also hold the distinction of being the only club to win a premiership in their inaugural season (1897). However, Essendon has struggled to remain competitive in the 21st century, having won its last premiership in 2000 and not winning a final since 2004.
During the early-to-mid 2010s, the team was the focus of an investigation by the AFL and independent regulatory bodies into their alleged use of illegal substances during the 2012 season, which led to 34 two-year suspensions, a $2 million fine, and disqualification from the 2013 finals series (among other penalties).
Three Essendon players—John Coleman, Bill Hutchison, and Dick Reynolds—and one coach, Kevin Sheedy, are classified as "Legends" in the Australian Football Hall of Fame.
Essendon also fields reserve men's and women's teams in the Victoria Football League and VFL Women's, respectively. Since 2022, it has a team competing in the national AFL Women's competition.[3][4]