International Bomber News Report

No. 3 February 17, 1997

Football news is starting to monopolise the sports pages of our daily newspapers with the Ford Australian Open and the big cricket out of the way.

February Draft

The club has delisted 1993 premiership wingman Paul Hills and will now have draft pick number 9 in the February draft tomorrow.

Paul has battled against injury over the past two years and has played only four senior games in that time. He has nominated for the draft.

Who will Essendon pick? No point in trying to second guess the coach so you will have to wait another week.

First Practice Match of the Year

Though we didn’t win our first practice match against the Crows on 15 February, the coach had reason to smile having previously agreed with new Adelaide coach Malcolm Blight for an eight man interchange bench. Many players had only a quarter to a half of football as Sheeds continued to experiment. The scoreboard was of little concern to him.

Kevin has never forgotten that he won all four practice matches in his first year in 1981 only to then lose five of the first six premiership matches. Remember we then won 15 consecutive games but the knives were out for the coach after an abysmal start to his first season as a rookie coach.

Sheeds started Lucas at centre half forward, Lloyd at full forward and Fletcher at centre half back. Michael Prior began in Gavin Wanganeen’s vacant back pocket.

Daniel McAllister, wearing Gavin’s old number made an outstanding debut to be named among our best. The New Zealand maori, 18, has had just two years football with the Tassie Mariners but the smart judges predict we have unearthed a ready made footballer.

Former Fitzroy ruckman Brett Cook began the game at full back on Modra and is thought to be of interest to the club at Tuesday’s draft. Cook, 24 in April, has played about 35 games for Fitzroy but missed selection for Brisbane.

This week the team plays at North Hobart oval against Sydney. A week later the Ansett Cup action begins with our first round game against the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba on 3 March.

Our First International Bomber!

Welcome to Jeff O’Brien, an Aussie based in Dublin who was the first to register for our International Bomber Supporters Club. The special t-shirt and Bombers cap is on its way to Ireland to Jeff who works in radio with Dublin 98 FM.

The International Bombers Club will be a great way to stay in touch with the Bombers and be part of our 1997 premiership campaign.

Full details of the International Supporters Club package are available from David Axup, or click here for more details.

The cost is just $100US. Why not join our premiership campaign?

124th Annual Report Published

The club has published its 124th annual report in preparation for the annual meeting on 6 March. President David Shaw has complimented Kevin Sheedy for the success he has brought to the club averaging 15 wins per season, "a most consistent record and one which is envied by other Clubs".

The President said James Hird’s Brownlow win was "richly deserved". He said that James was totally committedd to the pursuit of excellence on and off the field. "He is painstakingly thorough", added the President, "who has already given our Club outstanding leadership and who seems destined to become one of the all time great Essendon players".

Chief Executive Officer Peter Jackson described the operating profit of $494,335 as "encouraging". "It forms the basis of a sound future for the Club" added Peter who suggested there were many areas where better management and financial control would have improved the trading result. Abnormal "once off" items reduced the trading profit to a net loss of $731,665.

Looking Forward to the 1997 Season

Coach Kevin Sheedy reported that the team emerged from the Preliminary Final in Sydney last season confident we have the potential to achieve ultimate success. "The hurt we endured after Sydney is a great motivator from which to build another premiership team", he added.

Kevin is aware of the criticism of our poor record when on the road with just one draw from six games. But Kevin says that apart from the 96 point debacle in Adelaide and one bad quarter at the Gabba, we haven’t played all that badly interstate. "We should have taken the points in round 6 in Sydney, Subiaco was a top effort against the Eagles and not too many breaks came our way in the two interstate finals both of which we lost by just one point", Kevin said.

Sheeds is always optimistic. And he has right to be. We have built experience despite the team still being relatively young. We have developed a hunger borne from the loss in Sydney and our semi-final loss against Richmond the previous year. Our draft choices we believe were the pick of the bunch. We have a fine set of leaders in Gary O’Donnell, James Hird and Michael Long. We can also expect plenty of improvement from the group returning from long term injury including Michael Long, David Grenvold and Ryan O’Connor.

Brownlow Spectacular

Thanks to the initiative of the Gold Coast Bombers, the three triple Brownlow Medallists will appear together publicly for the first time next week.

Dick Reynolds, 1934,1937-38; Ian Stewart 1965-66; Bob Skilton 1959, 1963, 1968.

Remarkably no one had thought to every bring them together but we are expecting big numbers on the Gold Coast for their first public appearance.

Family News from Bomberland

Late news for visitors to our web site is that Mandy and Dean Wallis produced twins on Firday 14 February. Welcome to Tom and Sharni Wallis. And congratulations to mum and dad.

No doubt Tom will grow up hearing the story of Dean’s contribution to our 1993 premiership success. And rightly so.

And just two weeks ago the Denhams produced a sister for Emily when Georgia Denham was born. Congratulations to Sean and Joanne.

Alan Murphy
Communications Manager
Essendon Football Club
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