Because we never tried it?
Iâm too tired to go back and forth with you for the thousandth time on this subject
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Hardly anyone has suggested a full scorched earth rebuild but what we are currently doing isnât working and wonât work. We need to bold and trade out senior, underperforming players and hit the draft harder
7 Likes
The ones the are contracted? no one will take them unless we pay all of their contract. we missed our chance to cash in when Parish and Redman were FA now they are worth nothing
Other clubs do it.
Admit you made a mistake, cut your losses and move them on
4 Likes
I wouldnât want a decent pick in return if we are to pay for their contracts at another club
Itâs not up to other clubs to pay for our incompetence.
So we end up paying thier contracts at multiple clubs for fark all return in picks which wont help with the rebuild at all.
We would need to trade 3 or 4 contracted players and then use those picks to move up the draft order preferably in the top 20
4 Likes
No diffrent to fans wanting Brad sacked
Or we could just keep them all and I donât want to ever hear you complain again when in 4 years time they are still stinking it up or canât get the park due to injuries.
When I was a kid (90s, early 2000s) I had so much â â â â going on in my crappy life, but I thought, âat least I go for the best footy teamâ.
Lol, said God.
11 Likes
More then happy to trade out senior players that arenât up to itâs wether anyone wants them or the player agrees to a trade which is the hard part.
Thereâs no confidence that anything is somehow a guarantee of success BUT what I am extremely confident about is that continuing to just hope we get lucky in the draft & everyone above us gets worse is far far far less likely to ever end up in success than having a genuine plan to build for a strong long term list. We donât have to trade out every player over 21 but a calculated short term step back to give us a better chance to build for the future is simply the most logically sound strategy.
For example, we should have traded Shiel 3 years ago. It was patently obvious by then that he was the wrong type of mid for our list needs & was not going to be a long term part of the clubs future. We wouldnât have gotten great value for him BUT hereâs the thing you seem incapable of understanding, we would have then opened up a list spot that maybe just maybe could have been a better long term player. We also open up opportunities in the senior side & again maybe playing Perkins & Hobbs instead of every midfield minute Shiel has played makes them better players. In the short term maybe we lose 1 extra game in 2022 & end up with a player like Wardlaw or Sheezel instead of Tsatas. Maybe in 2023 we finish lower & donât have to trade a 2nd round pick to get Caddy & we end up with Mannagh as well or we still get Lual but then use pick 38 to get Freijah who looks promising. Thats just 1 example of whatâs possible when you look past short term aims & focus on the future. We have to do things differently or its almost inevitable we will forever be stuck in no mans land.
I donât believe EFC actively traded out a genuine best 22 player from the 2001/2 fire sale until Stringer last year. Every other player of any value that we lost was because they sought a trade rather than the club being the one driving any type of strategic plan. That has to change.
13 Likes
Weâve tried that too.
We traded out Saad, Hibberd, Melksham, Carlise, Daniher, Fantasia over the past decade and that got us absolutely no where. Id argue it set us back.
Whether you finish bottom or mid table, whether u trade out good players or not- none of it means â â â â if u stuff up your picks or stuff up the development.
First year of Rosa looks promising but f**k me dead, our development still sucks. We continue screw over our youngsters and back in the senior spuds. Id argue nearly all players have regressed or stagnated the past 3 years, so something is still not working.
Whos handing out these contracts to Jones for 2 years or Menzie last year? Whos giving a back pocket 7 year deals? Whoâs brining in McKay on elite money, who tf thought it was a good idea to bring Gresham in. Something is still not right.
4 Likes
I agree with 75 percent of your post but we didnât trade those guys out they wanted to leave
2 Likes
Posting this here because the influence of the coteries seems to come up often. Not much info, juice or anything to get angry with thoughâŚ.
The Essendon white knight who paid more than $1m for âno-naming rightsâ at the Hangar
Jake NiallMay 22, 2025
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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.
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.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.
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.
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.
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
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.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.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.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
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2 Likes
Iâm starting a âgo teamâ first 18 club on Blitz. For just $20 you can shout my first 18 beers to get me through Dreamtime at the G tonight.
1 Like
Itâs hard to take you seriously when you place Bryan in your list.
You were calling for us to recruit a mature Ruck in the MSD even before both Bryan and Draper went down with injury, because you didnât rate Bryan.
Do you think other Blitzers forget this stuff ?
Now suddenly he appears on a List of players we can build a squad aroundâŚcâmon
Hobbs is bang average and will probably be traded in the next 2 trade periods.
He doesnât belong in that list.
Tsatas at least has attributes to reach a high level.
Perkins is disappointing, but again, at least he has some elite attributes.
We have no idea how Draper and Bryan return from their injuries, or if Draper will still be on the list ?
Martin is the obvious name missing from that list.
3 Likes
I got about half way through that article before asking myself âwhy am I reading this?â
For those that finished it, was there a point?
2 Likes