I thought you looked like that Nino.
I have little interest in communicating with you anymore.
Like i care
Iâd argue you can already see more glimpses of a bright future with Richmond than us, and weâve been â â â â for so long. The key is getting draft capital in the right drafts having said that, aside from having a decent recruiter.
3 Likes
Played finals with a worse list than we have currently, played kids
Finished with our best percentage in years and had us within a few goals of the eventual runners up at 3/4 time in a final.
Yeah we fell to pieces the following year but he wasnât anywhere near as what people made out
6 Likes
Thatâs a nice statement.
But the West Coast eagles of â06 really does prove this theory wrong, to the extreme
On top of this, they had John Worsfold as CoachâŚâŚ so thatâs 2 âimportantâ things going against them.
No desire to win our players they just want the bucks
We had it all through most of the Sheedy years.
Then the club blew it, without even really trying.
2 Likes
As we have seen, what is even more important is developing the talent properly. Development at the club has been abysmal over the last 10 years in particular.
Who was the club dumb enough to trade for Cooney? Especially when most Blitzers in his last year at the Dogs were laughing at how bad and âcookedâ he was.
Sorry youâre describing the coach
1 Like
Away from the club, the culture was rotten, but the players still trained hard and played for one another. They were professionals despite everything.
Furthermore, that midfield really should have experienced a far longer stay at the top of the table. Two and a half years or so of being contenders with one flag doesnât do such a generational midfield justice.
1 Like
The Essendon white knight who paid more than $1m for âno-naming rightsâ at the Hangar
In the latest part of our series on AFL club powerbrokers we take a peek inside Essendonâs influential coteries and factions.
By Jake Niall
MAY 22, 2025
Some of the powerful people behind the scenes at Essendon: Tim Watson, Andrew Muir, Paul Little and Kevin Sheedy.CREDIT: ARESNA VILLANUEVA
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In 2018, the Essendon Football Club found themselves searching for a new naming rights sponsor for their vast Tullamarine facility, which had cost tens of millions of dollars at a time of unprecedented and almost existential crisis for the Bombers.
The move to Tullamarine from Windy Hill, one of the most consequential decisions in club history, had been partly bankrolled by Essendonâs enviable team of heavy hitters, who had signed up to a semi-subterranean group called âThe First 18â â named as if they were starters in a school footy team.
Founded by then president David Evans, each of the First 18 committed a mandatory minimum of $100,000 to the Tullamarine project before the Dons moved into their new digs during the tumult of 2013, when the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority investigation into their disastrous injection program was launched.
One of those First 18 â and by 2018, that group numbered many more than the eponymous 18 â came forward with a proposal.
Andrew Muir, the Essendon board member and benefactor who had sold his retail chain The Good Guys to JB Hi-Fi for $870 million, volunteered to purchase the naming rights sponsorship of the Bombersânew headquarters, at least for a period.
But Muirâs proposal had a twist.
He did not seek to give the facility a corporate prefix or attach his own name. Rather, it would be known plainly as âthe Hangarâ â a name, incidentally, that has stuck.
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Muir, thus, holds the rare distinction of having paid what club sources from that time reckoned exceeded $1 million (over two years) for what you might term âthe no naming rightsâ at Tullamarine; his covert sponsorship enduring only until mid-2020, when existing Essendon sponsor, NEC, took the baton â a partnership that remains.
Muirâs view, according to club insiders from that time (who spoke only off the record, as many current and ex-officials and past players did for this article), was that Essendon should not sell the naming rights for anything less than a high-level brand. If it couldnât have the right brand affixed to Tullamarine, it shouldnât have one.
Bombers board member Andrew Muir.CREDIT: PAUL JEFFERS
Muir, unlike a number of white knights around football, had not sought public recognition and did not return calls from this masthead to discuss his unconventional sponsorship. He remains on Essendonâs board and is renowned both for his generosity to the club and left-field suggestions, such as the notion that the players would benefit from a specific vegetarian diet (an advocate for healthy eating, Muirâs Good Foundation teamed up with celebrity chef Jamie Oliver more than a decade ago).
Paul Little, the First 18 and the secret loans
The First 18, which would further expand to about 35 contributors, represents the top end and financially elite strata of Essendonâs famed supporter groups or coteries.
Four past presidents â Evans, his billionaire successor Paul Little, ex-federal finance minister and ALP luminary Lindsay Tanner and ex PwC global chairman Paul Brasher, also a long-serving board member â are in the expanded First 18, which means theyâve donated at least $100,000 over the journey.
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In 2020, during the early period of COVID-19, Essendon received a line of credit â in effect, interest-free loans â from three benefactors for a significant amount. The private loans were known only to a small group within Essendon, headed by chief executive Xavier Campbell.
One lender for more than $1 million was Julius Colman, the ex-lawyer turned commercial property developer and international poker player who, like Muir, combined affection and assistance for the Bombers with philanthropy (Colman also donated more than $1 million of his poker winnings to his charity, the Colman Foundation).
Another to provide a line of credit to the club was Mario Biasin, the late owner of housing company Metricon and a one time major shareholder in the Melbourne Victory A-League club. Both men were foundation members of the First 18.
The Bombers, who were not an âassistedâ club given extra funding by the AFL during COVID, retained full financial independence at a time when they were recovering from a debt that ballooned to around $12 million in 2016 (when legal and other costs peaked following the mass suspensions of current and ex-players by the Court of Arbitration for Sport). They were still spending millions at Tullamarine.
Separately, Little also has been a strong financial backer of the Bombers, whose donors are revealed, in part, at the Hangar, where thereâs a Paul Little wing in the second building. The Biasin family are the sponsors of the club museum.
The Hangar has a function room for Essendonâs oldest, equally feted and feared coterie, the Essendonians. The trophy cabinet bears the names of all members of the Collins Street Dons (formerly the â â â â Reynolds Club). Housed behind glass, Essendonâs premiership cups (16 in VFL/AFL) have their own family sponsors, too.
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A second billionaire, Computershare founder Chris Morris was in the original First 18, and donated considerably more than the $100,000 minimum, according to a source from that period. Morris, who owns the Portsea Hotel and has extensive property investments in Queensland, has had less involvement in Essendon lately.
No other AFL clubâs coterie and supporter groups have been the subject of so much discussion, politicking or been so embedded into club DNA as Essendonâs.
If one were to compare Essendonâs coterie and support networks to their rapacious rival Carlton, one could say that their donors/benefactors arenât as oligarchical or visible as those of navy-blue hue (for example, the Pratt and Mathieson families), but that the Dons arguably bat deeper when the hat is passed around.
In 2025, the Bombers are seeking to reinvent themselves as a club that sheds the (Kevin) Sheedy skin while remaining respectful and proud of their storied past. The result is a still highly political club, in which statements about individuals are carefully chosen and might as well have subtitles â as when influential long-time recruiting boss and Sheedy ally Adrian Dodoro departed, following legal action in Fair Work Australia and a confidential settlement with the club he had served for three decades.
President David Barham, whose tenure to date has been defined by the appointments of Brad Scott and CEO Craig Vozzo, described Essendonâs mission thus: âWe have to look to the future but celebrate and respect our past.â
Little, who was contacted for this article more than a fortnight ago, politely declined to comment on his involvement at Essendon or on board issues. He has since gone on record (with Sevenâs Agenda Setters) refusing to rule out involvement in a board challenge or restructure.
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Just after the board takeover of 2022, TV executive Barham inherited the presidency from Brasher â one of four directors to resign over the issue of Ben Ruttenâs position and an external review. Brasher, Simon Madden, Sean Wellman and Peter Allen were opposed, supporting Rutten. Little declined to comment to this masthead on whether he would back a board challenge at the time, but he did not move against Barham, who had some fallout from the ill-fated appointment of ex-NAB boss Andrew Thorburn as CEO.
In 2022, Little â who led Essendon for much of the draining ASADA saga, when the club had overlapping crises â made plain to the Barham board that he supported the return of James Hird as senior coach. Hird had been a candidate, alongside Adem Yze, 2025 board member and 2000 premiership player Dean Solomon and the successful candidate, Brad Scott.
This masthead can confirm, however, that the billionaire â who came to public prominence via shareholding in logistic giant Toll Holdings and subsequently in property â is not a major financial contributor to Essendon in 2025, though he remains a corporate member, First 18 founding member and provides career/financial mentoring to some current players.
The perennially speculated prospect of Hird returning as coach â which was a long shot even when formally entertained in 2022 â made him Essendonâs version of the exiled prince, a Bonnie Prince Charlie (or Josh Frydenberg).
The coterie conundrum and Sheedyâs shadow
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Founded in the 1960s, the Essendonians were closely intertwined with the club hierarchy in the â80s, â90s and into the 2000s, during the Sheedy epoch; they had their own room at Windy Hill (and have one at Tullamarine now).
A former board member from the â90s and 2000s reckoned the coterie would be told the team on Tuesday, whereas the board wouldnât know until Wednesday.
The Essendonians number nearly 200, with each member paying at least what one long-time family member estimated at $10,000 a year. They contribute in the range of $300,000 and $400,000 to the club coffers. As a former senior official observed, the Essendonian financial impact was proportionately important in the â90s and 2000s, and less crucial, though still valued, today.
In Sheedyâs day, the Essendonians were headed for a long time by the popular club figure, the late Ron Kirwan, who had close relationships with players, while another important Sheedy ally, wealthy businessman and board member Bruce Heymanson, too, was a benefactor and networker nonpareil (âHeymoâ died in early 2013).
When the First 18 were established, Heymanson was often the man who made the pitch to the well-heeled.
The other notable coteries or support groups are the elite Coachâs Club, who pay around $30,000 for access to the senior coach, including regular briefings. Thereâs the Collins Street Dons (self-explanatory), the Essendon Executive Club, legal fraternity group The Law Dons, property and construction coterie Band of Bombers, the Sydney Bombers and the Essendon Womenâs Network.
Linda Dessau, the former governor of Victoria, ex-family court judge and AFL commissioner, was a founder of the Essendon Womenâs Network. Her husband, ex-County Court judge and barrister Tony Howard, set up the Law Dons and was appointed to Essendonâs board in 2024, providing the legal expertise that AFL clubs increasingly crave. At one point in her governorship, Dessau was touted as an AFL chair to succeed Richard Goyder.
Former governor of Victoria Linda Dessau with husband Tony Howard.CREDIT: JOE ARMAO
At various times since the 2010s, Essendonâs hierarchy has discussed âconsolidatingâ â that is, reducing or merging the coteries â given their large number, and bringing the groups under direct club control. Collingwood more or less did this under Eddie McGuire. Xavier Campbell was an advocate for consolidation, club sources said. âIt was a nettle that was never grasped,â said one ex-board member of that time.
The view that coteries, headed by the Essendonians, are either meddlesome or a spanner in club operations is disputed by the top brass.
âThe Essendonians are fantastic,â said Barham. âThey are incredibly supportive, they are well run and Essendon is lucky to have them.
âThereâs a lot of rubbish [said] about the Essendonians.â Barham added the same description of the Collins Street Dons â âfantastic.â
Vozzo also endorsed the value of the Essendonians.
One argument from football department officials and board members of the recent past was that the influence of coteries on football decisions was exaggerated, but that commitments to coteries and supporter groups â such as briefings and functions â took up valuable time and could be a distraction from the task at hand.
This view â one of misplaced priorities â was also posited by ex-assistant coach (2016-17), the former West Coast champion and Gold Coast senior coach Guy McKenna, who once told the West Australian (2022): âThe Bombers have a large fan base and enormous coterie group(s) which I spent more time in two years servicing than I did in 13 seasons at West Coast.â
Sheedyâs capacity to charm the coteries â who adore the four-time premiership coach â was in part the reason for Essendon hiring him as paid ambassador, on a six figure annual fee, in 2020 â a deal that remains, despite Sheedyâs exit from the club board.
Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy and captain Mark Thompson embrace as they hold the 1993 premiership cup.CREDIT: RAY KENNEDY
Brasher appointed Sheedy to the board in 2020, when the Bombers were dealing with the exodus of Joe Daniher, Adam Saad and Conor McKenna. The Bombers were seeking - as officials from that time fully acknowledge - to shore up support from a sullen membership.
Sheedy left the board at the end of 2024, having broken ranks with the board on the issue of Brad Scottâs appointment in 2022 - he put on record that he wanted Hird rather than Scott, against the wishes of the coaching subcommittee.
Sheedyâs deal with Essendon expires later this year. âI havenât signed any contract with anyone yet,â said Sheedy, who said he had also promoted GWS and Richmond.
âI do anything the club asks me to do because Iâm a Legend of the club and I should.â
Past players: who has clout?
The Sheedy era is the only genuine success that Essendon people without pension cards have known, as the finals-winning drought stretches to 21 years. The clubâs past 10 premierships were coached by Essendonâs three totemic figures - Sheedy, John Coleman and â â â â Reynolds.
One consequence, which the Essendon leaders know too well, is that the Sheedy era represents an idealised Camelot for fans that is difficult to move past, until they have new heroes.
A few former club people saw parallels between Essendon post-Sheedy and Manchester Unitedâs failure to remain as powerful after Sir Alex Fergusonâs exit.
âThatâs the same thing that happened to Tom Hafey at Richmond for 37 years and probably Norm Smith at Melbourne,â said Sheedy, who said he couldnât explain â having been at GWS â exactly what happened in his aftermath.
Thus, an Essendon passport â read, a part in the all-conquering 2000 team, 1993âs improbable âBaby Bombersâ flag or 1984-85âs super team â confers statue stature on ex-players, such as Matthew Lloyd, Dustin Fletcher, Scott Lucas, Hird, Mark Thompson and Mark Harvey.
Two past senior officials, who came from outside the Essendon family fold, felt that EPs â Essendon people â were afforded more privilege than outsiders, a dynamic replicated across most clubs.
Of the ex-players, the former champion and media figure Tim Watson is viewed internally as the most influential, via the combination of his media position - decades at SEN and Seven- and ranking as one of Essendonâs greatest players, and father of star midfielder and skipper Jobe Watson.
The elder Watson regularly conversed with CEO Campbell, had longstanding relationships with teammates Thompson, Harvey, Hird and Simon Madden, who was one of the four directors to resign on principle over the Rutten/external review issue.
Watson is careful in his pronouncements but whatever he says about the Bombers is newsworthy, and he has long had the ear of the club hierarchy. He and Jobe, for instance, would not endorse the return of Hird to the coaching position in 2022 when Rutten was sacked.
The Dons, the elder Watson said then, âdonât need a saviour.â
Andrew Welsh, the clubâs vice president, is a former player from the late Sheedy era, a teammate of Lloyd, Hird et al, and has made hundreds of millions in property. Welsh is all but assured of succeeding Barham â if he wishes â and has increased his clout via the election to the board of 2000 premiership player Solomon.
Mark Harvey, the triple premiership great who coached Fremantle and was caretaker at Brisbane when Michael Voss was sacked, has served what the club says is a valued commercial role that includes communicating with supporter groups and ex-players, keeping them in the loop but also providing the football department with a buffer from those obligations.
Harvey is friends with both Sheedy and Dodoro, but has managed to straddle the tensions that arose between that faction and the Barham-Vozzo-Scott club leadership.
The 20-year struggle and the power of the fan
Despite the failure to contend for two decades, Essendon managed to build Tullamarine, at a cost that Vozzo suggested was $40 million â others put it closer to $50 million.
Regardless of the outlay, the Bombers â thanks to First 18ers, state and federal governments and ordinary members â have managed to build their Taj Mahal, on airport land, at a cost that will be half what Richmond and Hawthorn are spending on Punt Road and Dingley respectively.
Bombers coach Brad Scott at the Hangar.CREDIT: GETTY IMAGES
They timed their construction well, and so have no debt today.
Vozzo said that Essendonâs average ladder position since 2004 is 11th, and views the teamâs struggles during this Millenium as the source of Essendonâs greatest challenge.
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âAnd so our fans, either⌠theyâre happy, or theyâre angry and hostile. Thereâs not much in between, and I can fairly understand why they feel like [that] â fair enough, because thereâs been a lack of confidence or trust in⌠what weâre doing. So thatâs the challenge, and that then leaks into a few things, obviously, [like] your commercial operation.
âSo, weâre not as strong as I think we can be as a football club. I think weâve got exciting opportunity ahead. But that gets back to, letâs get our football right.â
9 Likes
Unsure if posted already.
There ya go boys and girls.
$100,000 and you might have some influence in this pathetic meme club.
$30k for team selection before others internal to the club. Solid business plan.
2 Likes
Who was their coach that would have been so bad to waste all that talent (and only win the GF by 1 point)?
Brad Scott
Best i can do is 100k shitposts
5 Likes
Yeah Iâm never going to see development as equal to let alone more important than recruitment. You cant develop champions, they have to have that elite natural talent and self motivation. Every club fails to develop multiple players every year and even EFC has managed to develop some players to a very high level.
Look at it this way, had we not picked Zach Merrett at pick 26 in 2013 the player we did pick would have had the exact same development zach had. Thereâs no reason to believe another player would be close to Zacâs career had we recruited differently. Geelong appear to be great at developing players but they still burnt 1st round picks on guys like Brown, Tennace, Menzel, Smedts, Thurlow, Lang, Cockatoo & Stephens.
Iâm not saying development isnât also important but you can only develop players to their potential. I donât believe any of our lists were close to having elite potential even with the best possible coaching and development programs. I think its reasonable to suggest weâve had more qualified and capable people in our coaching and development roles than in our list management department.
3 Likes