Article by Jonothan Walsh…
I have long considered myself the luckiest Essendon supporter in the world. Born into a family that was dedicated to Essendon sporting clubs, my dad (Jim) the last living dual Life Member of both the Essendon Football and Cricket Clubs. My uncle, Mike Walsh was awarded the Medal of the Order of Australia (OAM) in the 2021 Australia Day Honours for his service to cricket, specifically for his long-term dedication to the Essendon Cricket Club, he also spent many years in the stats box at the Football Club. It’s not an exaggeration to say that I grew up at Windy Hill.
I was still in Year 10 at High School when I first sat in the Essendon Coaches/Stats Box for an AFL Game. Not yet old enough to drive, or vote, I travelled with the team Interstate trips. I walked along the boundary line and got pelted by marshmallows in 1998, a year later I sat motionless in the box with my heart on the floor as the final siren sounded on 1999 Preliminary Final Day. A year later again I walked onto the MCG alongside two men I have the utmost respect for, Robert Shaw and Dean Rioli, I had a front row seat to John Barnes and Dean Wallis embracing, and everything that followed. I didn’t give my uni work a single thought that week, all I studied was Jeff White and the Melbourne midfield. I went to bed at night dreaming of Jeff White hitting zones.
In 2002 the club unveiled the mural in the Windy Hill change rooms, most of you will have seen it. It’s the same one our newest Essendon Football Club heroes get to sing ‘See the Bombers fly up’ in front of. I was asked to put together a video highlighting the players on the mural and the single word that depicted the quality they brought to our football club. James Hird - Inspiration, Terry Daniher - Passion, Ian ‘Bluey’ Shelton - Strength. It took weeks, hundreds of hours of archive footage, I was in heaven. All current players were in the room for the unveiling, joined by those in the mural, and what felt like hundreds of other Essendon people. Highlights of Norm McDonald (Speed) gliding across the field drew gasps from onlookers, that same footage drew tears of pride from Norm himself, just months before he passed away. I was the luckiest Essendon supporter in the world.
More recently, my fortune has continued. I get to share this platform with thousands of dedicated Essendon supporters every week, dozens and dozens of whom I’ve had the pleasure of meeting in person, many of whom have now become good friends.
So much has been said in recent days and weeks about “Old Essendon” and the “Old Essendon Guard”. I get a sense of what that means to some people, but it’s not what it means to me and it troubles me.
Caroline Wilson, in her article in The Age this weekend referenced a board challenge from Paul Little… "the News Corp stories about Barham are troubling. Particularly in a year when former chairman Paul Little has publicly stated his willingness to return to the helm of the board.”
Wilson followed up with “Fordham is one in a long line of frustrated former players, staff and coterie members who have long broken ranks with the club and threatened its stability. Tullamarine bosses regard former longtime recruiting boss Adrian Dodoro, who parted ways with the Bombers last year after reaching a settlement with the club, as an ongoing influence.”
When “Old Essendon” and the “Old Essendon Guard” is thrown around I suppose this is what most people think of. I don’t know how much truth there is to any of that and it’s probably not for me to decide.
People can and should make their own minds up. But if there is any truth to it, I cannot help but feel that they’ve had their turn, it didn’t work out and it’s time to get out of the way of those that are trying to right the many, many years of turmoil, instability and lack of investment in our football program that came after the best part of two decades of salary cap mismanagement, divestment in football programs, chasing quick wins, paying the salaries of sacked coaches and employees, fighting legal battles and much more.
In recent days I’ve been thinking of something I witnessed Simon Madden say to a group of newly drafted Essendon players many years ago, something that had been told to him when he first joined the club and something that in my own small sphere of influence I tried to live up to - (paraphrasing) “right now you are custodians of this great club, your goal is to leave this club in better condition than when you found it…”
For one reason or another, and by no means through anything but good intentions, previous administrations over recent years haven’t been able to do that. They haven’t been able to leave this club in a better condition than when they found it.
Those that are in charge now, after the largest and most committed rebuild of our football club in my lifetime, Barham, Welsh, Solomon, Vozzo, Rosa, Scott, McPherson and now Inness…deserve clear air in which to operate.
There is a time in recent years where our club would have gone into a bidding war for the services of Sam Draper. 6 years, a million dollars a year and he probably stays. Free Agency has changed the game, most learned footy fans understand that. 13 players have ruptured an Achilles (as far as I could determine from information available), 4 of them have played 4 seasons or more upon return and only Jarryd Roughead was 200cm+. Fans use the word ‘ruthless’ a lot, not entering the Sam Draper bidding war, seeing the opportunity to invest in the draft off the back of it, seems like a ‘ruthless’ decision to me. Using it to run a personal agenda, through the media, is anything but.
Jordan Ridley has a right to be concerned, it’s his career. We can’t change the past, we can’t change that the department was under-resourced previously, or that we’ve been held back by paying termination packages of former employees. But we have now changed the people running the program, with two highly credentialed and highly respected people who now take over in a world-class training centre. Leveraging Jordan’s justified concern for personal agendas isn’t the answer, getting Inness and Regan into the football club is.
Jayden Laverde was a warrior for Essendon, unfairly maligned in my view. But the reality is he wasn’t in our team to start 2024 and didn’t come into the team until Round 10 in 2025. Rightly or wrongly, our club has made a decision to move past Jayden. Yet his exit is being leveraged to paint a picture of unrest at our football club.
Zach Merrett has decided that unlike Jobe Watson and Dyson Heppell, he’s not in it for the long haul. That’s fine. I love Zach, I don’t love how he’s gone about it. I am excited by the opportunity it gives us to rebuild our list, and faster than it might have been otherwise. I don’t love that people who could go about this in a completely different way, are seemingly using it to drive a wedge.
No change comes without pain, or mistakes. It’s inevitable when you go about a transformation of this size. I don’t condone the words of Dave Barham to former player, Ted Fordham. And far be it for me to talk for Dave, but I suspect he would be the first to admit he overstepped. But there is also a part of me that thinks there’s a bit of the true “Old Essendon” in Dave’s actions, not standing for anyone (even a former Premiership player) publicly going after our coach and players. Standing up in defence for those in the trenches at the moment. There might be better ways to go about it, but I respect the fight.
I respect that Dave could have sailed off into the sunset three years ago and said “no, it’s not worth it”, but he didn’t. He rolled the sleeves up and did the dirty work, work that was only ever going to upset some people. But work that had to be done, work that no one else had been prepared to do.
When there was public and media pressure on Ben McKay early this season, or Archie Perkins not long after, Brad Scott jumped to their defence. That’s the “Old Essendon” I remember. United, we’re all in this together. I respect that.
I respect that Andrew Welsh, owner of a successful business, young family, rolled up his sleeves. He didn’t signal his intent through the media, he didn’t hide behind leaked stories, he got stuck in. That’s the “Old Essendon” I remember.
I respect that each of these people (and others) are in this for the right reasons, and are in it for the long haul, because it was always going to be a long haul.
When Dale Tapping tragically passed away early this year, leaving us without a VFL Coach, Robert Shaw rang and offered his help. No fanfare, no expectation, no entitlement. Just “I’m here if I can help…I will”.
When my dad’s time at the club unceremoniously came to an end after the best part of four decades without taking a single dollar for his time, he didn’t get bitter like many others have, he didn’t talk badly in public of those at the club. He upgraded his membership, sat in the crowd and cheered on his club. And still does. That’s what “Old Essendon” means to me.
This platform has brought me closer to the club in ways I never expected. A club that for a long time didn’t feel the same to me. It felt lost. I felt lost. I don’t feel that any more. With every visit to The Hangar or Windy Hill it feels more like “Old Essendon”, it feels more like home. Lots of work still to do, but every opportunity is there now for people new or old to the club that want to help.
Be part of the solution or be part of the problem.
It doesn’t have to be “them or me”, it has to be “us”. To do it any other way, gets in the way of the progress we’ve made in bringing in young talent, it gets in the way of bringing new, highly credentialed people into our football club, it gets in the way of player retention and player recruitment. Every minute our current leaders spend defending themselves against external forces is a minute not spent investing time and resource into the football program. And above all of that, it hurts the fans, fans who have been through so much. Too much.
“Old Essendon” shouldn’t be a divided club, board challenges and instability.
It’s Jack Jones giving tours of The Hangar to fans until his final days, because he wanted people to love Essendon Football Club as much as he did. It is Michael Long standing up against racism with his club united behind him. It is Norm McDonald’s tears of joy, it is Ken Fraser’s delight at presenting his #23 jumper to Harry Jones, it is Brad Scott sticking up for Archie Perkins, it is Jayden Nguyen in his first game standing over Tom Papley.
The game has changed, what once worked, works no longer. It’s time for ‘Old Essendon’ to be the wind in our sails, not the anchor holding us back.