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Kevin Sheedy is poised to reach yet another career milestone, reports Lyall Johnson.
It is surely a measure of the man that even on the eve of his 800th game as a VFL/AFL coach and player, Kevin Sheedy is barely allowed a moment to reflect on his career without being asked about what he plans to do next.
Will he sign a new contract with Essendon, given the present one expires at the end of the season? Will he go to Richmond as a coach? Does he think there are opportunities for him in other roles, such as being a club director of football?
Predictably, talk turned yesterday, as it has done for some years now, to the idea of Sheedy "going back" to Richmond, where he played 251 games, three of them in premierships in one of the game's toughest sides. And not even Sheedy would deny a return to Punt Road would have an obvious symmetry, given that he played his entire career there and has been awarded life membership.
But it is not something he says he is considering, much less with the present coach, Danny Frawley, still under contract and his own team not without a chance in many people's eyes of being a top-four contender this year.
"A lot of people keep asking ... it is so wrong. Danny Frawley is the coach of Richmond, I'm coaching Essendon, and ... that's the way it should be left. It's quite simple. And, hopefully, we'll see each other in the finals," Sheedy said. "I'm a life member at Richmond and I will always care about Richmond, there is no doubt about that. The Bombers and Essendon, I have nearly been there a quarter of a century, so it has been just sensational for me and the development of (me as) a person."
But will the Kevin Sheedy story not be complete if he doesn't make it back to Richmond as coach?
"I don't think so. I could always go back and be on the board of Richmond, work as a footy manager. You don't have to be a footy coach to be good for a club," he said.
And if there is one thing Sheedy can boast, along with the three premierships he played in and the four he has coached at Essendon, is that he has always been "good for a club" - and good for the game.
Sheedy is one of the great innovators of the modern game (among many pioneering coaching techniques he also invented the "back spin" handpass), and without question, one of its greatest entertainers, keeping all amused with his often whacky, and, at times, controversial "Sheedy-isms".
Even as a youngster, Sheedy found himself facing a five-year ban from the VFA when he chose to move to Richmond in the VFL in 1967 without a clearance. Despite spending part of his career in the midfield, Sheedy became known mostly as a tough and uncompromising defender, and one who was a master of on-field psychological warfare.
Not much changed when he became Essendon coach in 1981; in fact, as the years have gone on he has become more eccentric. The marshmellow comments, the jacket waving after the Dons beat West Coast in 1993, his talk of "seagulls" hitting players and the infamous "you're gone" throat- cutter gesture, his talk of Martians and even him passing out on a Perth beach this year in the heat after not drinking enough water.
Predictably enough yesterday Sheedy described the unexpected 1993 premiership win by his baby Bombers as the highlight of his career so far. It ranks among the best team achievements of the modern game.
But the lowlight, aside from the premiership losses in 1983 and 1990, he says, was the aftermath of the preliminary-final loss to Sydney in 1996 when Tony Lockett kicked the winning point after the siren.
"If (I could) take back four minutes I'd like to take that four minutes back. Knowing in the end that a lot of players were injured that night ... it was mainly just the way I spoke to the side. I should have been more experienced and more caring about a loss to a team that had just been beaten (by) a kick after the siren virtually, or on the siren. But they're the lessons you learn," he said.
It is surely a measure of the man that even on the eve of his 800th game as a VFL/AFL coach and player, Kevin Sheedy is barely allowed a moment to reflect on his career without being asked about what he plans to do next.
Will he sign a new contract with Essendon, given the present one expires at the end of the season? Will he go to Richmond as a coach? Does he think there are opportunities for him in other roles, such as being a club director of football?
Predictably, talk turned yesterday, as it has done for some years now, to the idea of Sheedy "going back" to Richmond, where he played 251 games, three of them in premierships in one of the game's toughest sides. And not even Sheedy would deny a return to Punt Road would have an obvious symmetry, given that he played his entire career there and has been awarded life membership.
But it is not something he says he is considering, much less with the present coach, Danny Frawley, still under contract and his own team not without a chance in many people's eyes of being a top-four contender this year.
"A lot of people keep asking ... it is so wrong. Danny Frawley is the coach of Richmond, I'm coaching Essendon, and ... that's the way it should be left. It's quite simple. And, hopefully, we'll see each other in the finals," Sheedy said. "I'm a life member at Richmond and I will always care about Richmond, there is no doubt about that. The Bombers and Essendon, I have nearly been there a quarter of a century, so it has been just sensational for me and the development of (me as) a person."
But will the Kevin Sheedy story not be complete if he doesn't make it back to Richmond as coach?
"I don't think so. I could always go back and be on the board of Richmond, work as a footy manager. You don't have to be a footy coach to be good for a club," he said.
And if there is one thing Sheedy can boast, along with the three premierships he played in and the four he has coached at Essendon, is that he has always been "good for a club" - and good for the game.
Sheedy is one of the great innovators of the modern game (among many pioneering coaching techniques he also invented the "back spin" handpass), and without question, one of its greatest entertainers, keeping all amused with his often whacky, and, at times, controversial "Sheedy-isms".
Even as a youngster, Sheedy found himself facing a five-year ban from the VFA when he chose to move to Richmond in the VFL in 1967 without a clearance. Despite spending part of his career in the midfield, Sheedy became known mostly as a tough and uncompromising defender, and one who was a master of on-field psychological warfare.
Not much changed when he became Essendon coach in 1981; in fact, as the years have gone on he has become more eccentric. The marshmellow comments, the jacket waving after the Dons beat West Coast in 1993, his talk of "seagulls" hitting players and the infamous "you're gone" throat- cutter gesture, his talk of Martians and even him passing out on a Perth beach this year in the heat after not drinking enough water.
Predictably enough yesterday Sheedy described the unexpected 1993 premiership win by his baby Bombers as the highlight of his career so far. It ranks among the best team achievements of the modern game.
But the lowlight, aside from the premiership losses in 1983 and 1990, he says, was the aftermath of the preliminary-final loss to Sydney in 1996 when Tony Lockett kicked the winning point after the siren.
"If (I could) take back four minutes I'd like to take that four minutes back. Knowing in the end that a lot of players were injured that night ... it was mainly just the way I spoke to the side. I should have been more experienced and more caring about a loss to a team that had just been beaten (by) a kick after the siren virtually, or on the siren. But they're the lessons you learn," he said.

