New coach. Check
New prsident. Check.
Clash abomination jumper out. Double check.
Tons of classy new recruits. Check and mate.
Maligned Essendon clash jumper fades to grey
Callum Twomey December 15, 2015 9:24 AM
Essendon’s maligned grey clash guernsey won’t be seen in 2016
“We’ve got an exciting announcement to make early next year when we will be reverting back to a red and black guernsey as our away strip”
Essendon CEO Xavier Campbell
ESSENDON’S grey clash jumper has been ditched, with the Bombers to unveil a red and black away guernsey next year.
The club has been wearing a predominantly grey clash jumper in select games over the past three seasons, under a strict ruling enforced by the AFL under previous football operations boss Adrian Anderson.
But the Bombers have been working with the League over the past two seasons to find a way to discard the grey option, which has been met with disapproval from large sections of their supporter base since its inception.
Chief executive Xavier Campbell told members at Monday night’s Annual General Meeting the club would reveal a new clash jumper early next year without the grey base.
“For the last 24 months we’ve in dialogue with the AFL. There has been a change in key personnel at the AFL,” Campbell said.
"[New football operations boss] Mark Evans has had a greater ear for the understanding of our position around what our preference is, which is establishing a red and black base to our guernsey.
“Without saying too much more, we’ve got an exciting announcement to make early next year when we will be reverting back to a red and black guernsey as our away strip.”
The announcement was met with a round of applause from the crowd at the AGM, where chairman Paul Little stood down from his post after two-and-a-half years in charge and handed the reins to Lindsay Tanner.
Essendon introduced the predominantly grey jumper in the middle of 2012, having resisted the AFL’s pressure to introduce a clash jumper for six years.
The Bombers were the final club to succumb to the AFL’s demands to develop an away jumper, and wore it in games against Melbourne, Richmond, St Kilda and Port Adelaide.
Dustin Fletcher reached his 400th game in the guernsey earlier this year, with a jumper that also had artwork included as part of the Indigenous Round celebration.
The Bombers made a point to add “a heritage element” to their grey jumper to ensure some of the club’s history was reflected in the redesign, but it will be scrapped in 2016.
“Probably in 2010 we were given pretty strict parameters from the AFL with which to work within, and given an ultimatum to establish a clash guernsey with a predominantly light base to ensure we didn’t clash with opposition teams,” Campbell said.
"At that point in time, the AFL classified both red and black as dark colours so we did have to go and establish a further colour. We used the grey from the Bomber logo as the base colour.
“What we did around that guernsey was establish a heritage element, because there was some frustration, absolutely, from the football club around having to do that.”
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Kudos to Xavier Campbell and Mark Evans. Take that and shove it Adrian Anderson.
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