Essendon coteries and factions

[Del239335]

Question asked in another thread regarding what the Essendon coteries and factions are all about.

It's worth a topic of its own in my opinion, so what exactly are the Essendon coteries and factions all about?
How are Essendon different to other clubs in this regard?
You never hear about coteries and factions at Collingwood despite Collingwood being the biggest sporting club in Australia.

It would be good to hear from Essendon supporters who know about the inner workings of the club, as the coteries and factions get mentioned on here quite a lot.

 

[Donflicted]

Question asked in another thread regarding what the Essendon coteries and factions are all about.

It's worth a topic of its own in my opinion, so what exactly are the Essendon coteries and factions all about?
How are Essendon different to other clubs in this regard?
You never hear about coteries and factions at Collingwood despite Collingwood being the biggest sporting club in Australia.

It would be good to hear from Essendon supporters who know about the inner workings of the club, as the coteries and factions get mentioned on here quite a lot.

I dont want to get to deep into it

But lets just say due to Dodoros relationships with said coteries he was allowed to stay at the club for such a long time

 

[MF]

I dont want to get to deep into it

Is someone going to hurt you?

 

[Donflicted]

Is someone going to hurt you?

Dodoro took threatend to take Roco to court can only imagine what he would do to me

Also its at that point where if the coteries and those in charge at Essendon are going to learn well there never going to learn that there impatience and ego are one of the main reasons we are shit

 

[HairyO]

All old clubs have massively cashed up coteries.

But not all coteries are the same. Some like to get a little involved and love the inside access.

But some think they are the club and will control things they clearly have no skill in. Where the long term goal is the increased power of themselves and their mates.

 

[Donflicted]

All old clubs have massively cashed up coteries.

But not all coteries are the same. Some like to get a little involved and love the inside access.

But some think they are the club and will control things they clearly have no skill in. Where the long term goal is the increased power of themselves and their mates.

Thank you

Doesnt take a genius to guess which ones we have

 

[Former Decathlete]

Official AFL Website of the Essendon Football Club

The official AFL website of the Essendon Football Club

www.essendonfc.com.au

Success on the field comes from effective management, strong administration and member support. The Collins Street Dons are committed to play their role in the journey for the Essendon Football Club to winning their next Premiership.

Co conveners

Kevin Dale, Tim Donohue and Lyle Meaney

Corporate Hospitality

corporatehospitality.essendonfc.com.au

Im pretty sure there is a Doctor's Group as well

 

[Donflicted]

Official AFL Website of the Essendon Football Club

The official AFL website of the Essendon Football Club

www.essendonfc.com.au

Corporate Hospitality

corporatehospitality.essendonfc.com.au

Im pretty sure there is a Doctor's Group as well

Should offer free therapy to Essendon supporters

 

[HairyO]

Official AFL Website of the Essendon Football Club

The official AFL website of the Essendon Football Club

www.essendonfc.com.au

Success on the field comes from effective management, strong administration and member support. The Collins Street Dons are committed to play their role in the journey for the Essendon Football Club to winning their next Premiership.

Co conveners

Kevin Dale, Tim Donohue and Lyle Meaney

Corporate Hospitality

corporatehospitality.essendonfc.com.au

View attachment 2567795
Im pretty sure there is a Doctor's Group as well

That is just the start. A frirnd of my dad's is/was in the Hawk coterie and he spent WAY more than this.

You are expected to buy full tables at every event and contribute all along the way, every single year.

And for that you get in on all the business deals and side action.

But I dare say the coteries are nothing compared to the AFL Commission, Exec and Club Presidents and all their deals. Those are in the hundreds of millions.

 

[NetworkNerd]

What's stopping Essendon paying their players unders and then once they retire they gain employment with these high caliber coterie types earning hyper-inflated salaries/land.

 

[Stan_Darsh72]

You never hear about coteries and factions at Collingwood despite Collingwood being the biggest sporting club in Australia.

Eddie McGuire's real achievement was making they they all went along to his drum.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

That is just the start. A frirnd of my dad's is/was in the Hawk coterie and he spent WAY more than this.

You are expected to buy full tables at every event and contribute all along the way, every single year.

And for that you get in on all the business deals and side action.

But I dare say the coteries are nothing compared to the AFL Commission, Exec and Club Presidents and all their deals. Those are in the hundreds of millions.

There is something quite weird about how Essendon's coteries though tend to think alike (via being of the same profession, or having stronger work relationships within their industry outside of also both supporting Essendon), thus creating a more cohesive political block via their money than simply other clubs' money spinners.

If you are part of a coterie group for another club, you might have a successful tradie small business owner sat next to a doctor that's sat next to an executive for a multinational. While they all have money, they have different life experiences and not a lot in common, so they don't use their money to form power toward the club.

While Essendon's promotion of a doctors coterie, a lawyers coterie, a CBD business executive coterie etc. means that more people are willing to sign up, giving the club money, it also means that you create the environment of different groups wanting to exert more power, which leads to club destability. And obviously there are times where club destability is not worth the money being brought in. Or people really don't actually care about club stability, they would rather have influence in a destable club than no influence of a successful, stable club. Or they don't really care about the club, they like using the club for their own ends in their own professional benefit within their professional networks.

 

[threenewpadlocks]

Eddie McGuire's real achievement was making they they all went along to his drum.

I genuinely think that there's something to the fact that Collingwood were traditionally a working-class, labourist football club and there's something to be said about Collingwood's member base being more inclined to understand power through collective stability (like the historic power base of the Labor party, trade unions providing power to the working class, etc.).

 

[Jim Prideaux]

What's stopping Essendon paying their players unders and then once they retire they gain employment with these high caliber coterie types earning hyper-inflated salaries/land.

What’s stopping any club. The answer is absolutely nothing. Plenty of ex sportsmen in jobs they don’t deserve, hardly and Essendon or footy problem.

 

[JayJ20]

Essendon functions more like a political entity than a sporting organisation. Essendon coteries organise like PACs to influence decisions. Optics there are a lot more important than patience and tangible results.

It's why a rebuild has never been accepted and why we go through coaches every couple of years.

 

[10571z]

Official AFL Website of the Essendon Football Club

The official AFL website of the Essendon Football Club

www.essendonfc.com.au

Success on the field comes from effective management, strong administration and member support. The Collins Street Dons are committed to play their role in the journey for the Essendon Football Club to winning their next Premiership.

Co conveners

Kevin Dale, Tim Donohue and Lyle Meaney

Corporate Hospitality

corporatehospitality.essendonfc.com.au

View attachment 2567795
Im pretty sure there is a Doctor's Group as well

$1800 lol? Woodsman membership is like 30k.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

One word…




Sheedy.

 

[Daka]

They have a lot of high powerful financial backing coteries,
one of them is still the Pro Sheedy/Hird movement that still get pushed today.

 

[Gavin Excell]

One word…




Sheedy.

Is Sheedy code for Hird?

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Is Sheedy code for Hird?

All clubs have the wannabe powerbroker white men in suits. The secret is in how you engage and control them. Somebody above mentioned Eddie did a masterful job of this at Collingwood and that may well be right. He certainly seems to have done.

You want and need their money and backing, but they have no business dictating how a footy club is run. Which is why they need careful management by equally powerful but smarter people.

The major problem at Essendon is many of these blokes are Sheedy acolytes. It’s ancient history now but Sheedy achieved god-like status at Essendon 40 years ago. He came into a historically huge club that had been shit for 15-20 years. Much like it is now. He turned the place upside down and turned it back into an absolutely flint-hard powerhouse. A side which took on the unbeatable Hawthorn of the 80s and… hammered them.

For the now wannabe powerbrokers at Essendon, this was a crucial formative period. They worshipped Sheedy and always will.

When people talk of Sheedy as a political animal, a lot of it was this - while Collingwood might have had somebody like Eddie controlling these nuffies in suits, Essendon have always had the opposite. Sheedy, who leveraged their worship of him to ensure they used their money and muscle to back what he wanted.

He was absolutely filthy at being sacked by Essendon in 2007. He’s the ultimate egomaniac and was convinced he still had plenty more to give. So he’s kept doing whatever he could since to tear down anything at Essendon that he didn’t back. Which is basically everything other than his agents in Dodoro and Hird. The coteries have been one of his major weapons.

So it’s not so much that Essendon have these figures. All clubs do. The problem for Essendon is they have had an extremely powerful club legend using them as his tool. And nobody else with the same power to take them and him on.

Everything was tried by Essendon leaders to control Sheedy. Employing him on big money in a completely bullshit role. Even bringing him onto the board itself in a classic “let’s have inside the tent pissing out” move.

He was finally banished from the club in an absolutely masterful display of shithousery and rat****ery by David Barham. He got rid of Sheedy and actually sacked Dodoro, which was as drawn-out and ugly as expected. But he did it.

Sheedy is still there pulling these strings, the senile old prick. He’s dulled a bit with age but has had some wins. It cost Barham the presidency. He did make mistakes, but Barham was the only truly transformative and ballsy president Essendon have had in 20 years, the only one who followed up on trying to modernise the place. He got the arse as a result.

What now? Who knows. Sheedy will
continue his bullshit. The only hope really is that, like Trump, he drops off the perch (figuratively or literally) sooner rather than later.

And there is the story of “Essendon’s coteries”.

 

[Lunchtime]

All clubs have the wannabe powerbroker white men in suits. The secret is in how you engage and control them. Somebody above mentioned Eddie did a masterful job of this at Collingwood and that may well be right. He certainly seems to have done.

You want and need their money and backing, but they have no business dictating how a footy club is run. Which is why they need careful management by equally powerful but smarter people.

The major problem at Essendon is many of these blokes are Sheedy acolytes. It’s ancient history now but Sheedy achieved god-like status at Essendon 40 years ago. He came into a historically huge club that had been shit for 15-20 years. Much like it is now. He turned the place upside down and turned it back into an absolutely flint-hard powerhouse. A side which took on the unbeatable Hawthorn of the 80s and… hammered them.

For the now wannabe powerbrokers at Essendon, this was a crucial formative period. They worshipped Sheedy and always will.

When people talk of Sheedy as a political animal, a lot of it was this - while Collingwood might have had somebody like Eddie controlling these nuffies in suits, Essendon have always had the opposite. Sheedy, who leveraged their worship of him to ensure they used their money and muscle to back what he wanted.

He was absolutely filthy at being sacked by Essendon in 2007. He’s the ultimate egomaniac and was convinced he still had plenty more to give. So he’s kept doing whatever he could since to tear down anything at Essendon that he didn’t back. Which is basically everything other than his agents in Dodoro and Hird. The coteries have been one of his major weapons.

So it’s not so much that Essendon have these figures. All clubs do. The problem for Essendon is they have had an extremely powerful club legend using them as his tool. And nobody else with the same power to take them and him on.

Everything was tried by Essendon leaders to control Sheedy. Employing him on big money in a completely bullshit role. Even bringing him onto the board itself in a classic “let’s have inside the tent pissing out” move.

He was finally banished from the club in an absolutely masterful display of shithousery and rat****ery by David Barham. He got rid of Sheedy and actually sacked Dodoro, which was as drawn-out and ugly as expected. But he did it.

Sheedy is still there pulling these strings, the senile old prick. He’s dulled a bit with age but has had some wins. It cost Barham the presidency. He did make mistakes, but Barham was the only truly transformative and ballsy president Essendon have had in 20 years, the only one who followed up on trying to modernise the place. He got the arse as a result.

What now? Who knows. Sheedy will
continue his bullshit. The only hope really is that, like Trump, he drops off the perch (figuratively or literally) sooner rather than later.

And there is the story of “Essendon’s coteries”.

Sheedy is revered at Richmond as a player, but he hasn't had thst much to do with the Tigers ever since he left Richmond and perhaps that's a good thing.

I feel sorry for the Bomber supporters. They have endured enough and don't need club identities to make the Bombers worse.

 

[thejester]

And there is the story of “Essendon’s coteries”.

Do you think the influence of the coteries is slightly overexagerrated in media accounts precisely so they don't have to talk about Sheedy?

 

[Partridge]

Sheedy is still there pulling these strings, the senile old prick. He’s dulled a bit with age but has had some wins. It cost Barham the presidency. He did make mistakes, but Barham was the only truly transformative and ballsy president Essendon have had in 20 years, the only one who followed up on trying to modernise the place. He got the arse as a result.

What now? Who knows. Sheedy will
continue his bullshit. The only hope really is that, like Trump, he drops off the perch (figuratively or literally) sooner rather than later.

And there is the story of “Essendon’s coteries”.

It is amazing, after all this time, that the one lesson footy clubs fail to learn is not to automatically trust past players or coaches. At a certain point they don't have anything to offer. Case in point, look up so called "great" coaches - pick anyone you like, and have a look at how many won premierships after about 15 years' coaching. It drops off. Then look after 20. It drops off even more. Everyone has a use-by date.

Essendon have provided a blueprint of what not to do, and what happens when a Cult of Personality takes hold, first with Sheedy and with Hird.

I have Geelong mates always saying to me how good it is that we bring back "Geelong people" to be assistant coaches or whatnot. I always respond and ask how many games Mark Thompson or Chris Scott played for us, and how that ended up working out.

 

[Bunk Moreland]

Sheedy is revered at Richmond as a player, but he hasn't had thst much to do with the Tigers ever since he left Richmond and perhaps that's a good thing.

I feel sorry for the Bomber supporters. They have endured enough and don't need club identities to make the Bombers worse.

Sheedy is probably the most influential person in Essendon’s history. Certainly the last 50 years. He came in and was the driving force behind four premierships and taking Essendon from a suburban club to the top of a national league in all metrics, on field and off.

It’s ridiculous to think that somebody who did that could, in the end, actually be a net negative influence on the club. But he genuinely could be. The damage he has wrought on the club since 2007 has been considerable and it’s probably close to the point where, in 20 years, he’s actually offset his positive influence and legacy. It may well be, now, that we would’ve been better if he never walked into the place back in 1981.

I’m not saying he’s the only problem the club has had for 20 years. But I believe he’s been by far the biggest and most damaging.

 

[Mr Ripper]

Give Sashy a follow if you wanna know how Essendon coteries think