Headquartered at the Essendon Recreation Ground, known as Windy Hill, from 1922 to 2013, the club moved to The Hangar in Tullamarine in late 2013 on land owned by the Melbourne Airport corporation.

[5] The Essendon Football Club is thought to have been formed in 1872 at a meeting it the home of a well-known brewery family, the McCrackens, whose Ascot Vale property hosted a team of local junior players.

With the Tigers having already lost a match to Fitzroy by a substantial margin, the Dons were declared premiers by virtue of their superior percentage, meaning that Essendon again managed to win successive premierships.

Regardless of the accuracy of these allegations, the club's image was tarnished, and the side experienced its lowest period during the decade that followed, with poor results on the field and decreased support off it.

[citation needed] There was worse to follow, with various Essendon players publicly blaming each other for a poor performance against Richmond, and then, with dissension still rife in the ranks, the side plummeted to an unexpected and humiliating 28-point loss to VFA premiers Footscray in a special charity match played a week later in front of 46,100 people, in aid of Dame Nellie Melba's Limbless Soldiers' Appeal Fund, purportedly (but not officially) for the championship of Victoria.

In 1946, Essendon were clearly the VFL's supreme force, topping the ladder after the home-and-away games and surviving a drawn second semi-final against Collingwood to make it through to the grand final a week later with a score of 10.16 (76) to 8.9 (57).

The club's Annual Report made an assessment that was at once restrained and, as was soon to emerge, tacitly and uncannily prophetic: "It is very apparent that no team is complete without a spearhead and your committee has high hopes of rectifying that fault this coming season."

Best for the Dons included pacy aboriginal half-back flanker Norm McDonald, ruckman Bob McLure, and rovers Bill Hutchinson and Ron McEwin.

A year later, in 1950, Essendon were—if anything—even more dominant, defeating the North Melbourne Football Club in both the Second Semi-Final and the Grand Final to secure consecutive VFL premierships for the third time.

With Reynolds, aka 'King Richard', still holding court as coach in 1951, albeit now in a non-playing capacity, Essendon seemed on course for a third consecutive flag, but a controversial four-week suspension dished out to John Coleman on the eve of the finals effectively destroyed their chances.

Hugh Buggy noted in The Argus: "It was the wettest season for twenty-two years and Coleman showed that since the war he was without peer in the art of goal kicking."

The nearest miss came in 1957 when the Bombers (as they were popularly known by this time) earned premiership favouritism after a superb 16-point Second Semi-Final defeat of Melbourne—only to lose by over 10 goals against the same side a fortnight later.

1959 saw another grand final loss to Melbourne, this time by 37 points, but the fact that the average age of the Essendon side was only 22 was seen as providing considerable cause for optimism.

Coleman's time as coach turned out to be much like his playing career: highly successful but cut short when he had to stand down due to health problems in 1967.

The 1970s' Essendon sides were involved in many rough and tough encounters under Tuddenham, who himself came to loggerheads with Ron Barassi at a quarter-time huddle where both coaches exchanged heated words.

The tribunal suspended him for sixteen weeks, and although most people thought this was a fair (or even lenient) sentence, he took his case to the supreme court, gathering even more unwanted publicity for the club.

Terry Daniher and his brother Neale came via a trade with South Melbourne, and Roger Merrett joined soon afterwards to form the nucleus of what would become the formidable Essendon sides of the 1980s.

Following the retirement of Tim Watson and Simon Madden in the early 1990s, the team was built on new players such as Gavin Wanganeen, Joe Misiti, Mark Mercuri, Michael Long, Dustin Fletcher (son of Ken) and James Hird, who was taken at No.

[citation needed] Blake Caracella, Chris Heffernan, Justin Blumfield, Gary Moorcroft and Damien Hardwick had all departed by the end of 2002; in 2004, Mark Mercuri, Sean Wellman and Joe Misiti retired.

In 2005, Essendon missed the finals for the first time since 1997, and in 2006, despite a first-round 27-point thrashing of defending premiers Sydney in which newly appointed captain Matthew Lloyd kicked eight goals playing on Leo Barry,[50] the Bombers were uncompetitive for the majority of the season, partially due to Lloyd suffering a season-ending hamstring injuring in Round 3,[51][52][53] recording only three wins and one draw from twenty-two games to suffer its worst season since 1933, as well as recording the least-ever number of votes collectively as a team at the 2006 Brownlow Medal count.

In 2013, the club moved its training and administrative base to The Hangar, a new facility in the suburb of Melbourne Airport which it had developed in conjunction with the Australian Paralympic Committee.

[64] Hird returned as senior coach for the 2015 season,[65] and after a strong start, the club's form severely declined after the announcement that WADA would appeal the decision of the AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal.

On 12 January 2016 the Court of Arbitration for Sport overruled the AFL anti-doping tribunal's decision, deeming that 34 past and present players of the Essendon Football Club, took the banned substance Thymosin Beta-4.

A number of players also left the club at the end of the 2020 season, including Joe Daniher, Conor McKenna, Adam Saad and Orazio Fantasia.

[85] As a result of the 2022 season's turmoil, board members such as former CEO Xavier Campbell, former president Paul Brasher, former player Simon Madden, and Peter Allen left their roles.

[86] Campbell was replaced by Andrew Thorburn, who was pressured into resignation after only one day in the role due to his simultaneous position as a board member of the conservative City on the Hill Church Movement—whose controversial teachings conflicted with Essendon's progressive values—was made public.

[127] Essendon Hall of Fame Legends (year inducted): Bill Brew (2013), Bill Busbridge (1996), Jack Clarke (1996), John Coleman (1996), Bill Cookson (1996), Wally Crichton (2010), Terry Daniher (1996), Barry Davis (2006), Ron Evans (2012), Tom Fitzmaurice (1996), Ken Fraser (1996), Allan Hird Sr (1996), James Hird (2011), Harry Hunter (2015), Bill Hutchison (1996), Matthew Lloyd (2013), Simon Madden (1996), Alex McCracken (1996), Michael Long (2010), Howard Okey (2012), Frank Reid (1996), Dick Reynolds (1996), Greg Sewell (2009), Kevin Sheedy (2008), Albert Thurgood (1996), Tim Watson (1998), Neale Daniher* (2018), Dustin Fletcher*, Dr Bruce Reid* (2014), Gavin Wanganeen* *denotes recent elevation to Legend status Essendon Hall of Fame members (year inducted): Noel Allanson (2015), Fred Baring (2013), John Birt (2010), Reg Burgess (2015), Wally Buttsworth (2010), Barry Capuano (2014), Kevin Egan (2015), Alec Epis (2014), Ken Fletcher (2011), Keith Forbes (2010), Garry Foulds (2010), Darryl Gerlach (2013), Mark Harvey (2014), Bruce Heymanson (2013), Jack Jones (2012), Ron Kirwan (2016), Harold Lambert (2018), Scott Lucas (2013), Roy McConnell (2013), Don McKenzie (2010), Roger Merrett (2018), Joe Misiti (2012), Hugh Mitchell (2012), Graham Moss (2012), Gary O'Donnell (2014), Dr Ian Reynolds (2018), Paul Salmon (2012), David Shaw (2011), Arthur Showers (2010), George Stuckey (2010), Hugh Torney (2011), Paul Vander Haar (2015) Head coach Assistant coaches Updated: 3 February 2025Source(s): Players, coaches The Essendon reserves are the reserves team of the club, playing in the Victorian Football League.

Sources: Club historical data Archived 8 March 2021 at the Wayback Machine and VFLW stats In December 2017, Essendon entered e-sports by acquiring Australian League of Legends team Abyss ESports.

On 2 December 2019, it was announced that the Bombers' OPL slot had been sold to Perth-based internet provider Pentanet, marking Essendon's exit from the e-sports arena.

This came to the fore during the 1990s with players such as Michael Long, Derek Kickett, Gavin Wanganeen, and Dean Rioli rising through the ranks and being fostered by Kevin Sheedy.