i'm the older of 3, my mother is from chile and had no interest in football and my father is a melbourne supporter who has at best showed a passing interest in the preliminary final i 1987. Left to my own devices my two best mates in kindy barracked for the bombers and the rest is history.
My godfather is a pies supporter (because he barracked for colo colo in chile) and he tried to convert by buying me a pies jumper for my 5th birthday but it was already, thankfully too late.
Amusingly i only recently discovered that a poster on here of similar blitz vintage to me was actually one of those two best mates from kindy - lol
I'm a Bomber due to my dad. He claims he didn't try to influence me, that it was my own choice, but given I can only ever remember knowing that Essendon was my team, I must have made my mind up at a very early age!
Dad became a Bomber by chance. When they were kids, he and his sister went to visit two spinster aunts that lived down in Brighton. The aunts had two little footy figurines as presents for them, one St Kilda and one Essendon. Dad got the Essendon one.
Didn't take long for his sister to realise she'd got the wrong one, and she switched to Essendon too :)
Mum and Dad were die hard Essendon supporters- dad has been a member for over 60 years- and they would go to the Footy on most Saturdays at Windy Hill. They'd always stand in front of the stairs at the Showers Stand on their homemade wooden trestle steps, and I would be "encouraged" to go down to the fence and watch the games from just behind the goals. Babysitting 1971 style.
That was the way it was from when I would have been 6 or so. Used to love getting the footy's as they were kicked over the fence and handing them back to the players. And of course, a pie from outer. And chatting to the regulars who always sat behind the goals as well.
But the best thing was getting to go into the rooms before or after the games. Vivid memories of Graham Moss doing backfoot dropkicks against a wall and then marking the return during his warmup.......
Always loved the club, always will.........and my 3 girls haven't got much of a choice either!!
My local club wore black and red so I went for EFC in the VFL. When I was in Melbourne in '86, mum bought me an Essendon doll. Been obsessed ever since. Mum changed to Crows, dad is Crows, sis is Carlton and my bro is aRichmond.
He lived in the Clifton Hill area and started going to the football in this strange, new country with others from his home town/country.
He told me how they used to watch Coleman that year and how everyone would swap ends to watch him play.
My father dropped off following footy but one of his group would become a brother-in-law (mother's brother) and became completely hooked on footy and the Bombers.
At 4/5 years of age mum would dress my younger brother and I in full Essendon kit and my uncle, & a cousin of his who also became a mad Bombers supporter, would pick us up on Saturday's and take us to the game.
I come from a mixed household of Essendon (mum) and Collingwood (dad). I wasn’t really pushed in any direction but my older brother chose Collingwood, so I naturally chose Essendon. Older bro wasn’t really interested in footy, but I pestered my dad and made him take me to games. He hated going to Windy Hill but he would stand near the scoreboard and simply tell me to go and find him at the end of the game. The games at Vic Park were scary but I survived.
Mum always says that she didn’t really follow footy but the local neighbourhood kids would always talk about Coleman. When she saw him in a game she realised he was special, and the Essendon bandwagon was hitched.
First footy game I ever saw was in the late 80s and was West Coast vs. Collingwood. West Coast won, and as the colours were the same as Parramatta (who I quite liked in the Rugby League), I told my older brother that I would go for the team wearing yellow and blue. He said 'no you won't' - and I became an Essendon fan.
Why is he an Essendon fan? Growing up in Canberra in the early 80s, everyone either went for Essendon or Hawthorn, and some guy he didn't like went for Hawthorn.
So if it wasn't for some douchebag in my brother's year at school, I might not have met my wife.
My local club wore black and red so I went for EFC in the VFL. When I was in Melbourne in '86, mum bought me an Essendon doll. Been obsessed ever since. Mum changed to Crows, dad is Crows, sis is Carlton and my bro is aRichmond.
My local club wore black and red so I went for EFC in the VFL. When I was in Melbourne in '86, mum bought me an Essendon doll. Been obsessed ever since. Mum changed to Crows, dad is Crows, sis is Carlton and my bro is aRichmond.
Good god!!!
This is why I don't see them much!!!
My nephew goes for Port. His mum goes for Geelong. We're the weirdest family ever.
My Dad moved from the bush to Fitzroy and followed the Lions, my Mum lived in Spencer St West Melbourne and followed the Kangaroos. When I was 3, they moved to Pascoe Vale and all my friends were Bombers, so was I. We did drop kicks like Hugh Mitchell, and stab passes like Jack Clarke and John Birt.
In 1960, my Dad took me to Windy Hill for the first time, I was 7 and Bombers were playing the Lions. Both had strong teams, and I told my Dad if Fitzroy won then I would follow the Lions like him. Yep Lions won, he bought me a maroon and blue footy jumper and my first football. I followed the Lions until 1996, but went to many, many more Bombers games as my mates all followed Essendon. I knew more about EFC than anyone, but a promise us a promise so I stuck with Fitzroy.
In 1996, Fitzroy was destroyed and I became a Bomber Member. In any case, by then my three kids followed Essendon and my Wife followed Essendon, so it was a natural move. Moved to Sydney for a while, missed some games, but new Wife gave up Rugby League, joined up as a Bomber member and is now nearly as passionate as Koala, and also as lovely!
I was always an Essendon supporter because of my dad. My earliest memory is Tim Watson writhing in pain with an ankle injury in 1990 against Collingwood. I watched the 93 GF cheering on the Bombers Carton.
But I really understood what it means to be an Essendon supporter on my first sick day of school in Grade 1 in 1994 due to a combination of the flu and appendicitis, when my dad put on the VHS of the 1984 GF. My brother was home sick on the same day and between John Bertrand's Nissan commercials, I learnt the spirit of Essendon and the supreme efforts it takes to win a Premiership. We were glued to the TV as Essendon launched its amazing comeback and ultimately won the flag. I learnt that Hawthorn was a club to be hated (no matter their current ladder position) and that Essendon was the team to support.
Mum and Dad followed West Adelaide in the SANFL and it just seemed natural to support Essendon in the VFL. We are still crazy mad bombers supporters, Mum, Dad, Brother and Sister. Lost a few uncles and aunties to the crows (because they are a south australian team...most ridiculous excuse ever for abandoning the bombers)....a couple of hawks and far too many port supporters in the extended family.
I started liking football at the end of 1993. Essendon had just won the flag, and i liked salmon so i went for the bombers, plus i had always like ren and black.Nobody in my whole family goes for them. Mum follows them now to support me. Dad and my brother have always been carlton supporters.
Prelim 1999 was not a fun day at all. Dad couldn't care less about footy these days ( too corporate for him now, hates the way the game has changed). My brother goes occasionally but isn't a die hard like me.
Same with me, didn't start following footy until 1993. Started watching a lot of Bomber games coz I liked watching Wanganeen and by the time the Bombers played the West Coast game and Salmon had to kick the goal to win the game (after kicking so many points), I knew I was hooked on the Bombers and have been a mad Bombers fan ever since.
I've been pretty lucky coz I was growing up in Adelaide at the time and moved to Melbourne for work in 1999 till 2002, so got to watch those amazing seasons! Been out of Australia since then so am insulated from all the recent mediocre seasons but thankfully still get to watch a lot of their games on Australia Network channel.
at around 6years of age parents bought my brother and self a footy jumper each, to keep us both similar they thought both jumpers with a sash , gave my brother a richmond & myself essendon, die hard footy supporting parents born and raised in bendigo followed south bendigo going to games every weekend. dad-stkilda & mum-collingwood sad for them i got the best deal of them all, when affiliated with the bendigo bombers the passion for the club deepened tenfold, now 49 years old so count the years, long time member & supporter nothing will ever change that
At age 6 in 1981 Dad started taking me every week. So I was born into Essendon the year Sheeds started and so I have known nothing but greatness. I remember dad being so excited with our young team and he was cutting out newspaper articles of Watson jumping the pack and Madden holding up the night premiership cup. Sheeds took me through to my 4th flag at age 26. I was your quintessential cocky successful Bomber.
I have the Essendon pulse and Zeitgeist running through my veins. I know things about us simply by listening to my waters
When I’m feeling it then you should get excited…
My old man is a poster here and used to follow Coleman end to end. Funny enough his poster name is Johncoleman10 and his story goes back to the turn of the century and Im not talking 2000.
I came to live in Australia back in the mid eighties. The sports I were into then are tennis, cricket and NFL as I lived in both UK and US before. Footy didn’t register much until my son went to high school and I guess followed Essendon because of his mates influence. This was back in the mid nineties. I then started watching games of footy on TV, try to work out at the same time what the game is about and the rules empirically. I rember liking the Hawks a bit in those days. However, it was partly my sons influence and partly this bloke called Kevin Sheedy that won me over to the BOMBERS.
Dad lived in the bush and grew up dirt poor. Said his happiest memories were listening to the radio broadcasts of Bombers games and so I learned about legends like Coleman, Hutchison and Clarke from a very young age. We lived in Clayton and made the trek to Windy Hill, the G, and other suburban grounds during Essendon’s dark years in the 70’s. I remember nearly dying when I was hassling mum to get me an Essendon jumper and dad suggested, god knows why, to get a more colourful Footscray jumper. I got the Bombers jumper, mum sewed Alan Noonan’s number 10 onto it and away I went. My eldest son is even more bomber crazy than me, so I must have done something right!