Toast 150 Years of Essendon

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Genuine question to Essendon fans. Your club is 149 years old, and the first bomber came into existence 108 years ago, but really did not become what we know as a bomber today until the 1930's. With that in mind how did Essendon get the name the Essendon Bombers? What were you guys called before then?
They used to be called “The Same Olds”. When they moved to Essendon, their proximity to the airport led to their new nickname.
 

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I'm sure the club will have taken some random punter off the internet's opinion on what actually happened into consideration when portraying the events of the last decade

I look at the news this morning and there's Honest Jobe saying he still "feels" the Brownlow is his. It's as welcome as a fart in your ear.

Eassendon can't be reading the room that badly. It's done, move on.
 
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I'm sure Essendon went into it with the best of intentions, but there was some bitterness from North supporters that they ended up winning VFL flags with players like Syd Barker who were North Melbourne champions.

“You were saying something about *best intentions*???”

 
Genuine question to Essendon fans. Your club is 149 years old, and the first bomber came into existence 108 years ago, but really did not become what we know as a bomber today until the 1930's. With that in mind how did Essendon get the name the Essendon Bombers? What were you guys called before then?

Prior to 1922 when the club relocated to Windy Hill, Essendon FC were at the old East Melbourne ground..we were called “ The Same Olds” very early on …(and later the “Dons”)
….which came from our habit of being a dominant force in football seasons and being on top a lot in ladder position and winning flags in 1897, 1901, 1911, 1912, 1923 and 24’.


“ The Same Old Essendon” winning again.

Somewhere in the 40’s we became The Bombers because of the Essendon Airport nearby. Flags in 42’, 46’, 49’ and 1950.


The East Melbourne Cricket Ground was a grass oval sports venue located at the corner of Wellington Parade and Jolimont Parade, in East Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.[1] Now part of Yarra Park and being adjacent to the Melbourne Cricket Ground, the site is best known for playing host to many sporting events during the city of Melbourne's early existence, consisting mainly of cricket and Australian rules football, although the ground occasionally hosted soccer matches.


The ground was opened in 1860 and closed in 1921. It adjoined the Melbourne Cricket Ground and was not far from the Richmond Cricket Ground, all three grounds being sited in the area formerly known as Captain Lonsdale's Cow Paddock, now Yarra Park.


In the 1880s, the Essendon Recreation Reserve became the primary multi-purpose grassed sports reserve in Essendon. The Essendon Cricket Club was the ground manager and primary tenant, and played its cricket matches there during the summer. The Essendon Bowls Club was granted permissive occupancy of the south-western corner of the reserve in 1886.[2] The reserve also contained a bicycle track,[3] and was used by the Essendon District Football Club, which was a junior club, for its home games during the winter.[4] At this stage, the Essendon Football Club, which was playing top-level senior football in the Victorian Football Association, played only occasional games at the venue; its primary home ground was the East Melbourne Cricket Ground approximately six miles away.[5]

The demise of the Essendon District Football Club in 1897 left the ground vacant for other sports during the next three winters, including running[6] and lacrosse.[7] Football returned to the ground in 1900 with the establishment of the Essendon Town Football Club, which played in the Victorian Football Association. Over the following few years, the Essendon Croquet Club was established, and it built a court and club room in the north-eastern corner of the reserve.[8]

In 1921, the East Melbourne Cricket Ground was closed, which forced the Essendon Football Club (at that time playing in the Victorian Football League) to find a new home.[9] The council wanted the club to move to the Essendon Recreation Reserve, and committed to making £12,000 of improvements to the venue if the club did make the move,[10] but the club thought it would have a better outcome if it moved to the Arden Street Oval in North Melbourne.[9] Ultimately, Essendon's move to North Melbourne was blocked by the state government, after a protest from the VFA which did not want to lose access to the Arden Street Oval,[11] so Essendon moved to the Essendon Recreation Reserve.[10] The Essendon Town club disbanded as a result of losing its home ground.[12]

After this move, Essendon used the venue as its home ground for VFL/AFL matches for the next seventy years, from 1922 until 1991. Essendon played 628 matches at the venue, with a win-loss record of 418–201-9, a winning percentage of 67.28%.[13] The venue also hosted one neutral VFL match: a finals match between South Melbourne and Richmond during the 1924 VFL finals series.[14] The record attendance was 43,487 for a match between Essendon and Collingwood in 1966.[15]

The nickname "Windy Hill" for the ground was popularised in the mid-1950s by Lou Richards. Richards, a former Collingwood captain but by then a football columnist for The Sun News-Pictorial wrote his reviews in an expansive and humorous writing style, and coined the term because of the ground's windy reputation. The nickname stuck and is in near-universal use to describe the ground – and often by association the Essendon Football Club itself.
 
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It’s actually true

Urban myth

If anything it comes from way way back by opposition supporters who hated us because we were so successful all the time. Along with Collingwood, both clubs dominated the competition from the creation of the VFA then into the breakaway VFL right through the early 1900s ..1920s and 30s.

A google search comes up with this obvious anti-Essendon piece saying it mentions it. I can’t be bothered reading through all of it


There is no evidence online of the club ever have been called The Blood Stained Blacks. There is evidence of the nickname The Blood Stained ******s, for example here. For obvious reasons, this nickname isn't in use any more, so shouldn't be listed in the infobox as a nickname. It might be possible, if someone is thus inclined, to discuss this elsewhere in the article. Wikipeterproject (talk) 06:23, 9 October 2009 (UTC)


Noted Australia Rules Football and EFC historian Robert Pascoe apparently mentions it here. Again I can’t be stuffed reading it all.



And apparently in this..


It’s all heresay…
 
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That's not quite what happened, Essendon got kicked out of East Melbourne Cricket Ground (you might know it today as that big area where trains wait before going into the city loop) so they offered to merge with North and play games at Arden St. North were interested because they'd been trying to join the VFL since it started, but it ended up falling through after all of North's players signed with Essendon. Essendon ended up moving to Windy Hill, displacing Essendon Association. Essendon Association didn't have a ground and North didn't have a list, so those two clubs merged instead.

I'm sure Essendon went into it with the best of intentions, but there was some bitterness from North supporters that they ended up winning VFL flags with players like Syd Barker who were North Melbourne champions.

They also opposed our entry to the VFL for many years for fear of losing players to us.

Scum then, scum now.
 

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