- Dec 14, 2008
- 19,855
- 32,338
- AFL Club
- Essendon
Its been a tough year, lets be honest. Actually its been a tough few years- but we are all still here, riding the punches, ploughing the depths of pain, why? What is it about a football club that forces you to hang around through everything?
If a Partner did this to you, you'd kick to the curb, if a job did this to you, your have quit ages ago... but supporting a football club, a bunch of blokes wearing the same jumper throughout time has somehow imprinted on your DNA, has somehow made you resilitant to the downs, has made it so must stay on board no matter what happens.
Obviously the built up memories of times past are a factor, alot of the marker points we leave behind, the cookie crumbs like hansel and gretel that trigger memories from your youth and childhood are related to the club and how they have made you feel.
So what is your personal Essendon history? what has transpired in your football watching life that has brought you to this point, still able to wave the flag or wear the jumper and support the team through all this rubbish now?
In a year so tough it would be good to hear some of the tales when times were better, that made you proud of the club, that made you feel happy, triumphant, proud, arrogant - or whatever the footyclub has made you feel over the years. We all have trodden differnt paths to be where we are today but ill bet each of us in here have a collection of identical memories at exactly the same points in time that the club have given to us.
My Bomber history started early, was born in 1978 so i guess in that respect i was lucky that i was born after the worst of the down periods and probably at the begininng of a golden era to be a bomber fan.
I cant actually rememeber my first real memory of footy, my earliest photos are of me in a bomber beanie so i guess i had no choice either way. My kinder and school was in the Essendon zone so i reckon a good 50% or more of the classes were all red and black so we were quite the army back then, but i had a nemesis, the boy 3 doors down was died in the wool Hawthorn - it was just perfect that as i was getting old enoigh to get into the footy we began waging war with the hawks in three stright grand finals.
He gloated, hard after 83 but i only have vauge memories of it - 84 i mostly recall for ruining dads taping of the game by running through the brand new video recorders remote chord as he was deleting an ad. But 85 i rememebr fully, the balloons being let off into the air pre game, the fight, dermie kneeing the pack, doing the poncy walk.. daisy williams giving the bird, every glorious goal. That was the moment, all at once i fell in love with Essendon, in hate with dermie and the hawks, and had a punch on with the boy 3 doors down because he threw my bike in his skip after i teased him about the result..
i still hadnt been to a game live, we used to go to training with my junior footy club to see the bulldogs once every few months, my dad had an xy panel van, half the team of u8s would pile into the back... those were the days of no seatbelts. i have a strong memory of Peter Foster giving us a pep talk but i didnt want to hear about it because he wasnt Essendon - on the way back to the club in the back of the panel van that night the state of origin was playing in the radio and we were all excited.
My first live game was a night match against fitzroy on a friday night, i wish i could recall the score or the year, but i mainly remember the first time i saw the bright green grass under lights as i walked up the stairs, it mesmorized me, i kept looking up at the lights and turning away blinking.. just so i could get the imprint of the iconic triangle MCG lights in my eye lids as i blinked.
We won but in the end i was more content wearing my waterproof Bomber club gloves and trying to clap while they were linked by their joining clips.
The next game i can rememeber going to was the 1989 final when we trounced Geelong, we were sat on the old wooden bench seats next to the cheer squad, i kept inching closer and closer them until they gave me a flag - i felt like i was more a part of the army, being in with the cheer squad! I figured we were just going to roll on and win another flag, id already experienced 2 so i thought you just got to do them all the time - so the following week crushed me when Geelong beat us equally as bad as we beat them.
1990 I was right into it, every game on the radio - we were a great team but so were Collingwood, so good were we both that our home and away game, hyped to the max was shown life on TV, unheard of at the time. We won by a kick, i think bomber Thompson somthered a goal bound kick from the goal square with seconds to go to seal the win - but it just whet the appetite for the finalks and when we would meet again.
We finished a game clear ontop and earnt the week off but Collingwood threw a spanner in our works, drawing with WCE forcing a replay the week later and giving us 2 weeks off on the trot. not ideal coming into your first final after not playing for nearly 3 weeks! collingwood smashed us but we inturn smashed WCE to ensue the mathcup the footy world wanted.
I made a bet with the truck driver 2 doors down that he we lost to his mob id wash his truck. I was still young and niave - betting was still fun...
As tim watson walked down the race before the GF that day, i saw a look in his eye.. it was a look of reservation, like they knew what was coming, i didnt see that killer instinct. and so it happened, the Collywobbles were banished, at our expense.. it hurt, a lot! so did washing the truck.
I went to my first and last game at windy hill next up, it was the game when the siren went and we all ran onto the ground but Nobby Clarke still had the chance to win it with a late kick, was chaos! I cant actually remember what year it was? but in 1992 mum said i was old enough to start getting the train to the city with my mates to go to the footy, we would get the vline early on saturday morning, kick in the car park for hours, watch the reserves, watch the game, kick in the car park afterwards... go to spencer st station - it would be a sea of footy jumpers for all other teams - stories be flowing for who kicking bags, who took hangers, who won, who lost from all the satuday games. I could never be bothered finding out who a v b, and c v d were on the score baord so id wait for the forum at spencer street to get my news.
The main games i rememebr this year were a game vs Melbourne when somerville kicked a bag from full forward, i talked him up on the train but this old drunk bastard said, dont get your hopes up kiddo, he will just frustrate you.. wise old drunkard he was. Hawthron destroyed us by three figures, but i did what i always did, got home to watch the replay that had been taped.
Then 1993 came along, i got my first membership, the old plastic ones that the gate worker clicked a notch out of each game, it ended up like a serrated knive blade if you went every week.., what a year to really get immersed in the game!
i went every week with the same crew, it was the brother of my next door neightbour, his blue laser hatchback, his father in law and his two jailbird mates from Adelaide who looking back now id say they were on the run from something..they both had jailbird tear drop tatts on their face and were skittish at the sound of sirens.. buut i was only 15, to me they were just funny guys shouting out stuff at the footy.
so many highlights that year - the kernahan out on the full draw, the ablett salmon show, the jacket wave, hird coming of age vs hawthorn, i was revelling in it, mum had lost her son. He was now in with the footy crowd - id get out of bed, hi mum, bye mum, going to the footy - walk back in that night, hi mum, by mum going to bed.
the finals came, the first ever night final v carlton - essendon gave out a whole lot of speed kills signs and gloves, saying go bombers - i still have some, couldnt get over the line but we dominated wce the next week them the famous game vs adelaide. sitting in the sunshine under the ponsford at halftime, nobody was really glum, was a weird feeling, then that third quarter - one of thise 30 minute spells that makes all the stuff we deal with now worth while.. it was awesome, the crowd was rocking - loudest i can ever recall when Mercuri kicked that goal!
Didnt really have time to celebrate, straight home, change of clothes then onto windy hill to line up for GF tickets... mum inexplicably let me sleep over on the steet for 2 nights - i look back now and think wow!
those 2 or 3 nights/days are forver imprinted in my brain, i really hope one of you recognises these memories and says hey man that was me you were with! because we were all just a bunch of strangers camped up against the wall, under tarps, but we were like family in the end. with nothing esle to do but explore, thats what we did. Windy hill was our maze and we were the rats, running in and out of every corridor, every path we could find in the dark - it was deep midnight and we were somehow finding our was into old dust covered bars under the stands, old changing rooms with historic names on the lockers like coleman and reynolds.. rubdown tables, boards with chrighton medals and stuff on them, rooms where the cheersquad has the floggers, It was like we were exploring ancient egypt! sneaking around trying not to get busted.
We found a room with a big switchboard in it and flicked the switch, it started whirring and shaking, and we feel a glow, turn around to see we had just turned the windy hill lights on!, as they were warming up we quickly went out and had a kick to kick on the ground but we got scared - what if the papers caught wind of this , extra extra!, sheedy calls midnight training session! they went back off after 5-10 mins and we kept exploring, found our ay into the old score board and put out the letters for Carlton Sux.. pity it didnjt make it til training, some old crony must have found out and taken it down.
We got our tickets on the morning and felt listless after that.. what do we do now? cant just leave all our new mates can we? There was a sign saying the social club would be open for the brownlow count that night. collar a must! I had to put my Ess jumper on under another jumper but the coller coming out over the top was sufficent, we were in!
Ofcourse Wanganeen or as Ross Oakley said Gavin Wauguaneen won! free drinks were put on the bar, how cool! then he came back to the club with Steph to sign autographs, couldnt believe it really, of all the things youd want to do after winning the brownlow, he was back at the social club signing mugs like my jumper.
So the GF came and went, to be honest i loved it but it wasnt as strong as the memories of the week proir? weird i know, but going back to windy hill again that night, felt like i was going home again - just crowds full of people, running amock, burning carlton scarves, kernahan cut outs. This was fun times, then again the next day everyone there as the players and cup came back home.
I really hope the next time we win the flag windy hill is still the go to and not TVSC. That place holds so many memories for me njow, even if most of them are not even of games....
So the 90s rolled by and it seemed like we wasted our golden generation, I dont think i missed a home game for the decade but the hurts stand out more than the highs, most of all the loss to richmond in the final when we lead at half time, and the two one pointers in 96, vs Brisband when wanganeen had the shot across his body from the goal square with 13 seconds left, then the heartbreaker toi Sydney. i know its a national game now but trust us to play all three in one finals series! the sydney loss was the first loss to induce tears from my eyes... id take a smashing over that, especially as we skipped away to a lead late on.
Again the buiding phase up until 99, that year reaqlly snuck up on us. After the marshmellow final it seemed we were in a slow build but before we knew it we were ontop oif the ladder and raging premiership favorites - cue the second ever tear inducing game 99 prelim, does not need to be revisited.
2000 was a bit of a pisstake to be fair, we were just so arrogant, the team, the players and us the fans, you just knew each week we would win, not matter what, we were so good we created new things like the flood. i was writing checks i couldnt cash - sure i knew that year we would win, but i was burning every bridge with the people i knew who supported other teams- its now that im being repayed for that, they are now reveling in what i am going through - maybe i should have been more humble back then.. but, nah- stuff it, we were that good!
Being at that GF, i thoight to myself im going to celebrate this so hard! i couldnt get shitfaced in 93, i was tool young, but this time i will - and i regret that, i cant rememebr much of the post mnatch now.
After the 2000 win and the following year the travel bug hit and i lost nealry all connection with the club and its happenings. all i had was random bits and pieces from across the globe. Id park myself in some weird places on dialup, after not having been in proper civilisation for weeks - other people would be emailing home, or talking to family.. id be scouring essendon news from places like Manali in India, or La Paz in Bolivia - wasting my precious dialup connection and $5 for 20 mins or something on it waiting for news and picutres to load of how bad we were going... It was easy to get disconnected it must be said, and not just cause of the dialup, but from the plight of the club.
We returned home the the Hird Era, which was building into something - and now, where we find ourselves....
So if i really look at it, the club has given me some great highs, 84/85, 93, 2000, and some low lows, losing heart breaking finals by points.. and the lowest of lows.. now.
But it also helped me to grow up, those times in the early 90s, cutting my teeth going to the footy alone on the trains, meeting new people, sleeping over at the club, all positive memories.
What i really need now, or before i die, is one last flag (at least) i reckon ill really know how to celebrate it properly now, and cruiclay ive had enough low lows to compare it up against. after this past few years, a flag is needed!
Ive already lost one kid to geelong, she wants to follow the cats... ive only got one left,, the boy.. the boy must see success soon or ill lose him too.
So anyhow, what is your EFC history?, i dont expect you to go into so much detail, i got a bit carried away there! but what sticks out for you? particular memories of games, eras, moments.. things that co-incided with moments in your real life like weddings, births or deaths that maybe the footy helped or has a connection with now to you. First games? games that upset you?
What has happened throughout your footy life that has allowed you to keep supporting through all this?
If a Partner did this to you, you'd kick to the curb, if a job did this to you, your have quit ages ago... but supporting a football club, a bunch of blokes wearing the same jumper throughout time has somehow imprinted on your DNA, has somehow made you resilitant to the downs, has made it so must stay on board no matter what happens.
Obviously the built up memories of times past are a factor, alot of the marker points we leave behind, the cookie crumbs like hansel and gretel that trigger memories from your youth and childhood are related to the club and how they have made you feel.
So what is your personal Essendon history? what has transpired in your football watching life that has brought you to this point, still able to wave the flag or wear the jumper and support the team through all this rubbish now?
In a year so tough it would be good to hear some of the tales when times were better, that made you proud of the club, that made you feel happy, triumphant, proud, arrogant - or whatever the footyclub has made you feel over the years. We all have trodden differnt paths to be where we are today but ill bet each of us in here have a collection of identical memories at exactly the same points in time that the club have given to us.
My Bomber history started early, was born in 1978 so i guess in that respect i was lucky that i was born after the worst of the down periods and probably at the begininng of a golden era to be a bomber fan.
I cant actually rememeber my first real memory of footy, my earliest photos are of me in a bomber beanie so i guess i had no choice either way. My kinder and school was in the Essendon zone so i reckon a good 50% or more of the classes were all red and black so we were quite the army back then, but i had a nemesis, the boy 3 doors down was died in the wool Hawthorn - it was just perfect that as i was getting old enoigh to get into the footy we began waging war with the hawks in three stright grand finals.
He gloated, hard after 83 but i only have vauge memories of it - 84 i mostly recall for ruining dads taping of the game by running through the brand new video recorders remote chord as he was deleting an ad. But 85 i rememebr fully, the balloons being let off into the air pre game, the fight, dermie kneeing the pack, doing the poncy walk.. daisy williams giving the bird, every glorious goal. That was the moment, all at once i fell in love with Essendon, in hate with dermie and the hawks, and had a punch on with the boy 3 doors down because he threw my bike in his skip after i teased him about the result..
i still hadnt been to a game live, we used to go to training with my junior footy club to see the bulldogs once every few months, my dad had an xy panel van, half the team of u8s would pile into the back... those were the days of no seatbelts. i have a strong memory of Peter Foster giving us a pep talk but i didnt want to hear about it because he wasnt Essendon - on the way back to the club in the back of the panel van that night the state of origin was playing in the radio and we were all excited.
My first live game was a night match against fitzroy on a friday night, i wish i could recall the score or the year, but i mainly remember the first time i saw the bright green grass under lights as i walked up the stairs, it mesmorized me, i kept looking up at the lights and turning away blinking.. just so i could get the imprint of the iconic triangle MCG lights in my eye lids as i blinked.
We won but in the end i was more content wearing my waterproof Bomber club gloves and trying to clap while they were linked by their joining clips.
The next game i can rememeber going to was the 1989 final when we trounced Geelong, we were sat on the old wooden bench seats next to the cheer squad, i kept inching closer and closer them until they gave me a flag - i felt like i was more a part of the army, being in with the cheer squad! I figured we were just going to roll on and win another flag, id already experienced 2 so i thought you just got to do them all the time - so the following week crushed me when Geelong beat us equally as bad as we beat them.
1990 I was right into it, every game on the radio - we were a great team but so were Collingwood, so good were we both that our home and away game, hyped to the max was shown life on TV, unheard of at the time. We won by a kick, i think bomber Thompson somthered a goal bound kick from the goal square with seconds to go to seal the win - but it just whet the appetite for the finalks and when we would meet again.
We finished a game clear ontop and earnt the week off but Collingwood threw a spanner in our works, drawing with WCE forcing a replay the week later and giving us 2 weeks off on the trot. not ideal coming into your first final after not playing for nearly 3 weeks! collingwood smashed us but we inturn smashed WCE to ensue the mathcup the footy world wanted.
I made a bet with the truck driver 2 doors down that he we lost to his mob id wash his truck. I was still young and niave - betting was still fun...
As tim watson walked down the race before the GF that day, i saw a look in his eye.. it was a look of reservation, like they knew what was coming, i didnt see that killer instinct. and so it happened, the Collywobbles were banished, at our expense.. it hurt, a lot! so did washing the truck.
I went to my first and last game at windy hill next up, it was the game when the siren went and we all ran onto the ground but Nobby Clarke still had the chance to win it with a late kick, was chaos! I cant actually remember what year it was? but in 1992 mum said i was old enough to start getting the train to the city with my mates to go to the footy, we would get the vline early on saturday morning, kick in the car park for hours, watch the reserves, watch the game, kick in the car park afterwards... go to spencer st station - it would be a sea of footy jumpers for all other teams - stories be flowing for who kicking bags, who took hangers, who won, who lost from all the satuday games. I could never be bothered finding out who a v b, and c v d were on the score baord so id wait for the forum at spencer street to get my news.
The main games i rememebr this year were a game vs Melbourne when somerville kicked a bag from full forward, i talked him up on the train but this old drunk bastard said, dont get your hopes up kiddo, he will just frustrate you.. wise old drunkard he was. Hawthron destroyed us by three figures, but i did what i always did, got home to watch the replay that had been taped.
Then 1993 came along, i got my first membership, the old plastic ones that the gate worker clicked a notch out of each game, it ended up like a serrated knive blade if you went every week.., what a year to really get immersed in the game!
i went every week with the same crew, it was the brother of my next door neightbour, his blue laser hatchback, his father in law and his two jailbird mates from Adelaide who looking back now id say they were on the run from something..they both had jailbird tear drop tatts on their face and were skittish at the sound of sirens.. buut i was only 15, to me they were just funny guys shouting out stuff at the footy.
so many highlights that year - the kernahan out on the full draw, the ablett salmon show, the jacket wave, hird coming of age vs hawthorn, i was revelling in it, mum had lost her son. He was now in with the footy crowd - id get out of bed, hi mum, bye mum, going to the footy - walk back in that night, hi mum, by mum going to bed.
the finals came, the first ever night final v carlton - essendon gave out a whole lot of speed kills signs and gloves, saying go bombers - i still have some, couldnt get over the line but we dominated wce the next week them the famous game vs adelaide. sitting in the sunshine under the ponsford at halftime, nobody was really glum, was a weird feeling, then that third quarter - one of thise 30 minute spells that makes all the stuff we deal with now worth while.. it was awesome, the crowd was rocking - loudest i can ever recall when Mercuri kicked that goal!
Didnt really have time to celebrate, straight home, change of clothes then onto windy hill to line up for GF tickets... mum inexplicably let me sleep over on the steet for 2 nights - i look back now and think wow!
those 2 or 3 nights/days are forver imprinted in my brain, i really hope one of you recognises these memories and says hey man that was me you were with! because we were all just a bunch of strangers camped up against the wall, under tarps, but we were like family in the end. with nothing esle to do but explore, thats what we did. Windy hill was our maze and we were the rats, running in and out of every corridor, every path we could find in the dark - it was deep midnight and we were somehow finding our was into old dust covered bars under the stands, old changing rooms with historic names on the lockers like coleman and reynolds.. rubdown tables, boards with chrighton medals and stuff on them, rooms where the cheersquad has the floggers, It was like we were exploring ancient egypt! sneaking around trying not to get busted.
We found a room with a big switchboard in it and flicked the switch, it started whirring and shaking, and we feel a glow, turn around to see we had just turned the windy hill lights on!, as they were warming up we quickly went out and had a kick to kick on the ground but we got scared - what if the papers caught wind of this , extra extra!, sheedy calls midnight training session! they went back off after 5-10 mins and we kept exploring, found our ay into the old score board and put out the letters for Carlton Sux.. pity it didnjt make it til training, some old crony must have found out and taken it down.
We got our tickets on the morning and felt listless after that.. what do we do now? cant just leave all our new mates can we? There was a sign saying the social club would be open for the brownlow count that night. collar a must! I had to put my Ess jumper on under another jumper but the coller coming out over the top was sufficent, we were in!
Ofcourse Wanganeen or as Ross Oakley said Gavin Wauguaneen won! free drinks were put on the bar, how cool! then he came back to the club with Steph to sign autographs, couldnt believe it really, of all the things youd want to do after winning the brownlow, he was back at the social club signing mugs like my jumper.
So the GF came and went, to be honest i loved it but it wasnt as strong as the memories of the week proir? weird i know, but going back to windy hill again that night, felt like i was going home again - just crowds full of people, running amock, burning carlton scarves, kernahan cut outs. This was fun times, then again the next day everyone there as the players and cup came back home.
I really hope the next time we win the flag windy hill is still the go to and not TVSC. That place holds so many memories for me njow, even if most of them are not even of games....
So the 90s rolled by and it seemed like we wasted our golden generation, I dont think i missed a home game for the decade but the hurts stand out more than the highs, most of all the loss to richmond in the final when we lead at half time, and the two one pointers in 96, vs Brisband when wanganeen had the shot across his body from the goal square with 13 seconds left, then the heartbreaker toi Sydney. i know its a national game now but trust us to play all three in one finals series! the sydney loss was the first loss to induce tears from my eyes... id take a smashing over that, especially as we skipped away to a lead late on.
Again the buiding phase up until 99, that year reaqlly snuck up on us. After the marshmellow final it seemed we were in a slow build but before we knew it we were ontop oif the ladder and raging premiership favorites - cue the second ever tear inducing game 99 prelim, does not need to be revisited.
2000 was a bit of a pisstake to be fair, we were just so arrogant, the team, the players and us the fans, you just knew each week we would win, not matter what, we were so good we created new things like the flood. i was writing checks i couldnt cash - sure i knew that year we would win, but i was burning every bridge with the people i knew who supported other teams- its now that im being repayed for that, they are now reveling in what i am going through - maybe i should have been more humble back then.. but, nah- stuff it, we were that good!
Being at that GF, i thoight to myself im going to celebrate this so hard! i couldnt get shitfaced in 93, i was tool young, but this time i will - and i regret that, i cant rememebr much of the post mnatch now.
After the 2000 win and the following year the travel bug hit and i lost nealry all connection with the club and its happenings. all i had was random bits and pieces from across the globe. Id park myself in some weird places on dialup, after not having been in proper civilisation for weeks - other people would be emailing home, or talking to family.. id be scouring essendon news from places like Manali in India, or La Paz in Bolivia - wasting my precious dialup connection and $5 for 20 mins or something on it waiting for news and picutres to load of how bad we were going... It was easy to get disconnected it must be said, and not just cause of the dialup, but from the plight of the club.
We returned home the the Hird Era, which was building into something - and now, where we find ourselves....
So if i really look at it, the club has given me some great highs, 84/85, 93, 2000, and some low lows, losing heart breaking finals by points.. and the lowest of lows.. now.
But it also helped me to grow up, those times in the early 90s, cutting my teeth going to the footy alone on the trains, meeting new people, sleeping over at the club, all positive memories.
What i really need now, or before i die, is one last flag (at least) i reckon ill really know how to celebrate it properly now, and cruiclay ive had enough low lows to compare it up against. after this past few years, a flag is needed!
Ive already lost one kid to geelong, she wants to follow the cats... ive only got one left,, the boy.. the boy must see success soon or ill lose him too.
So anyhow, what is your EFC history?, i dont expect you to go into so much detail, i got a bit carried away there! but what sticks out for you? particular memories of games, eras, moments.. things that co-incided with moments in your real life like weddings, births or deaths that maybe the footy helped or has a connection with now to you. First games? games that upset you?
What has happened throughout your footy life that has allowed you to keep supporting through all this?
