History of the Essendon football club

Golden Age

During the 1930's the club was unable to better a 6th place on the ladder by any years end. The one highlight would be the emergence of Dick Reynolds in 1933. With King Richard Essendon found a player and man to build a club around. His efforts in 1934, 1937 and 1938 saw him become one of only a couple of players to ever win three Brownlow medals. If his playing career had ended then, he still would be regarded as one of the greats, but while he had tasted individual glory, it would be Dick who would lead the Bombers out of the wilderness and into it's next great era.

If the 1930's were Essendon's darkest, the the 1940's can be rightly considered its brightest. After Reynolds took over as Captain/Coach in 1939, things looked to be on the improve, and the fans who showed optimism proved to be correct. During the 1940's Essendon were in 8 grand finals, winning 4 flags and narrowly missing out two another when they tied one grand final only to lose the replay and going down by a single point in another. With Dick Reynolds at the helm, he surrounded himself with many of the players who are widely regarded as among the best to ever play. Bill Hutchison who would win two Brownlow's, Wally Buttsworth, Hugh Torney and the greatest full forward ever, John Coleman, were to take the field under Reynolds control.

The arrival of John Coleman in 1949 signified a new era in football. While back in the 1930's players such as Bob Pratt, Harry Vallence and Gordon Coventry had racked up the magic 100 goal mark year after year, the changing of rules and tacit approval of heavy handed attention from full-backs on forwards meant that no man had kicked a bag of 100 goals since 1940. Coleman managed the feat in his first year of league football, something would be marveled at even today, let alone in a era when backs had no penalty for kicking the ball out of bounds on the full as was the case in Coleman's era.

With John Coleman in the goal square, the Grand Final of 1949 is rightly remembered as one of the most devastating displays of football ever seen. The Bombers defeated Carlton, regarded as easily the second best team of the time with an 18.17.125 to 6.16.52 scoreline. Coleman was brilliant with 6 goals, but the entire team were magnificent. All the signs were there that the golden times of the 40's would continue well into the 50's. The faith looked well founded when in 1950 the club scored another back-to-back success, once again proving to be a truly awesome side. Even the seconds and thirds won their flags and the bombers looked set to continue the successful times.

But the 1951 season proved to be one that Essendon supporters would remember for all the wrong reasons. Coleman's dominance of the goal square had seen him kick 100 in his first year, then 120 in the 1950 season. But this dominance had come at a price. The tactics of his opponents grew steadily more and more viscous, with the umpiring of the day allowing his opponents to triple team him and have all three men drop into his back and legs after every mark. Despite Coleman's boyish looks, he was a fiercely competitive man who had a temper that both he and the club struggled to control. He faced the tribunal more than once, but the fateful visit that is now part of football folklore was after the last home & away match of the 1951 season.

Carlton would be unable to make the finals, while Essendon had sown up their spot the previous week against Fitzroy. The Carlton tactics were nothing short of vile, with the umpire forced to come from the centre bounce position at least once during the first half to try and stop the fighting that would break out as the Blues defense attacked Coleman on mass. Coleman's direct opponent for the game was Harry Caspar and for the first half he held Coleman to a low score with a mixture of tactics that included both the illegal and immoral. It is said that during the half time break down in the rooms Coleman threw off his boots vowing never to play again after the attention of Caspar that had included the Blues defender squirrel gripping him repeatedly.

The tactics had come to a head just before half time when Caspar struck Coleman in full view of the goal umpire. Coleman staggered then retaliated. After the melee was cleared the goal umpire booked both Casper and Coleman for striking. In the second half Coleman came out and destroyed Caspar and Carlton and led Essendon to a 44 point victory after the Dons had led by only one goal at the break. But it was to be the events at the tribunal that would see the greatest interest.

When the Tribunal found Caspar guilty and suspended him for 4 matches, all of which would be served in the 1952 season due to the Blues missing the finals, the Essendon fans were hopeful that at worst Coleman would receive half Caspar's penalty as the retaliator. When a newsman yelled to the waiting crowd the result 'Four Weeks!' the crowd was as stunned as Coleman. Not only had Coleman been handed the same suspension as the man who had started the fight, Coleman would have to serve the ban during the finals, making his punishment effectively much harsher. Coleman was rushed to a waiting car, tears visible on his face as the injustice done to him, and his teams hopes of a third flag in a row, hit home. Despise making the Grand Final, Geelong won the game as Essendon went into the decider without the best player in the league. The injustice almost saw Coleman quit with a reported statement of "I don't think I will ever play again. I was prepared to take my punishment, but when it was shown I was the retaliator I expected at the worst to get half the sentence of Caspar."

Luckily for Essendon and football Coleman returned for the 1952 season and found his way to 103 goals for the year. Along with Bill Hutchison's lost Brownlow on a count back, Coleman's efforts were highlights in an otherwise tough year when they missed the final four for the first time since 1945. Hutchison's Brownlow would be reinstated in 1989, but not before Billy had passed away. Luckily his disappointment in 1952 turned to elation in 1953 when he finished outright first. Hutchy still holds the record as the Essendon player to score the most Brownlow votes over his career, polling 172 votes from the men in white during his time with the bombers. 1953 saw Coleman fall a mere 3 goals short of the 100 mark, missing out through the dons being unable to make it past the semi-final where he suffered from the Flu and was only able to grab one major during the last game for the Bombers that year.

The club had been trying to find replacement youngsters to fill the gaps left by the retirement of the greats from the 1940's but would have to deal with a major disaster when Coleman injured his knee against North Melbourne during the eighth round match of the 1954 year. He had kicked 537 goals in his brief career, at an average of 5.48 per game. He was the only man who kicked a ton for the 28 years from 1940 to 1967, and he did it three times and managed 97 on a fourth occasion. Only one other man, Jack Titus, ever kicked 100 goals when the rules did not have an 'out of bounds' penalty, but Titus's effort was a hang-over from previous times, as the rule changes had only happened in the previous year and teams had not fully grasped the changes it allowed. Coleman played in an era when the full forward was disadvantaged by the rules, and considered fair game by backmen. He was the greatest full forward to ever play and rightly named as full forward when the AFL named it's "Team of the Century".

Despite good performances from a side now led by Hutchy and coached from the sidelines by Reynolds and including such players as the wonderful half-back flanker Norm MacDonald, the Bombers weren't able to capture another flag. The Demons under Norm Smith would go on to become the new powerhouse side, and the decade finished with Melbourne taking over from Essendon as the pace setters.

In 1961 John Coleman took over from Dick Reynolds as coach. Reynolds career was incredible, with his games record standing until broken by Simon Madden in the late 1980's and his coaching record standing until beaten by Kevin Sheedy in 2001. His 224 games as captain still stand to this day, and was captain/coach for 4 winning grand finals. He won an equal best 7 Best & Fairest and represented Essendon in 10 grand finals.

If Reynolds' era had been characterised as one of solid effort of time, then Coleman's would prove to be similar to that of his onfield record - brilliant but all too brief. In only his second year as coach Coleman took Essendon to another flag, exacting some small amount of revenge over Carlton in the Grand Final. The 1962-1964 years weren't all bad, but once again Coleman led his team to victory in 1965 to prove himself as a great coach as well as superstar player. Memories of Coleman's own run-in with Caspar must have come flooding back to him during the 1965 preliminary final as Collingwood defender Wright knocked out then star John Sommerville in the opening 10 minutes of the preliminary final as the ball was up the other end of the ground. Despite the blow of losing the key forward, Essendon won the match although Sommerville was taken to hospital and missed the Grand Final. Coleman would step down as coach at the end of 1967 due to health problems and died of a heart attack 2 days before the opening game of the 1973 season. Much has been written on Coleman, but all the words will never really capture the impact he had on football. He was a superstar player with movie star good looks in a era where the media coverage of footy was limited. Fans would change ends at the ground in order to watch his goal mouth exploits. His story includes all the ingredients of a hollywood drama including his death while still tragically young.

Jack Clarke took the Bombers to 1968 Grand Final where the team went down to Carlton before a massive crowd of 116,828 fans, but it would be a long time before the Bombers would again be at the MCG on the biggest day of the year.

Next: Tough Times

If you would like to relive some of the great deeds of the Essendon football club, then grabbing hold of these few videos is a must.

100 years of Australian Football > - DVD or Video
A brilliant production covering the first 100 years of Autralian Football. While it is not simply an Essendon production, it does however go into detail on John Coleman and Dick Reynolds and the power bombers sides of the late 1940's and early 1950's.

1965 Grand Final - DVD or Video available.
See Coleman coach Jack Clarke, Ken Fraser and the rest of the side to ultimate victory over St.Kilda. This is the earliest Essendon Grand Final victory available with complete footage of the match.

All original images on this site remain the property of Danny Bishop and cannot be used without prior approval. Any tradmarks remain the property of their respective owners. It doesn't look like the AFL have the best interests of fans at heart, so make sure you're a member of your club so you can have a say. Go Bombers. ©2004-2005.