By Jake Niall
Essendon legend Kevin Sheedy will step down from the Bombers’ board as of the end of this season.
The Bombers confirmed on Thursday night that the four-time premiership coach had opted to step down as a director of the club – almost four years after he was appointed in the wake of a tumultuous campaign.
Kevin Sheedy is arguably the most influential figure in Essendon history.Credit: Eddie Jim
A club source, who spoke on the condition of anonymity, said the decision was a case of it being “the right time” for the coaching legend to finish up.
Sheedy is arguably the most influential figure in Essendon history, having guided the club to all four of their premierships won since the 1960s, and having built the club into an Australia-wide goliath.
Sheedy will maintain a role at Essendon, however, as a paid ambassador dealing with coteries, past players, and influential sponsors, a position he occupied prior to his appointment to the board in October 2020.
His support was important in the election of current president David Barham, in a board takeover in which Paul Brasher stepped down as president over the issue of whether there should be an external review of the club’s on-field performance.
In effect, this was a division on the issue of whether Ben Rutten would be retained as senior coach in 2022. Rutten was ultimately replaced by Brad Scott.
Sheedy, 76, also backed the candidacy of James Hird to return to his former position as senior coach, breaking ranks with the club’s hierarchy, but ultimately Sheedy offered strong public support of Scott.
Barham said at the announcement of Scott’s appointment that Hird went through the “exact same process” as other coaching candidates, which included then-Melbourne assistant (and now Richmond coach) Adem Yze, with Scott deemed the best fit.
Sheedy said he had been the dissenting vote in a 6-1 decision in favour of Scott, and declared he felt 2000 premiership captain Hird deserved a second chance after stepping down as coach late in the 2015 season.
According to an Essendon statement on Thursday, Sheedy was “also instrumental in attracting vice president Andrew Welsh back to Essendon”. Welsh, who played 162 games across 10 seasons for the Bombers, now chairs the club’s football governance committee.
“The club is in excellent hands with president David Barham and the current board,” Sheedy said in the club’s statement.
Sheedy and James Hird are chaired off the ground after their last games as Essendon coach and player, respectively, in 2007.Credit: Sebastian Costanzo
“Vice president Andrew Welsh is doing an excellent job, looking after the football aspects from a board point of view. I was happy to step up and help when asked by Paul Brasher in 2020, and I have always done everything that I can to help this club. This will never stop.
“I am very confident under the leadership of CEO Craig Vozzo and senior coach Brad Scott, that we are on the road to success. We have returned to being a football club where our ultimate focus is on winning football games and making our members and supporters proud with everything we do. Essendon means so much to so many people and with the current stability and renewed focus at the football club, we have the right foundations for sustainable success.”
In addition to leading the Bombers as senior coach over a record 27-season stretch from 1981 to 2007, Sheedy was the inaugural coach of GWS, whose club champion award is named in his honour.
Sheedy is third on the all-time VFL/AFL list of games coached, behind Jock McHale and former Richmond teammate Mick Malthouse.
Sheedy, who is the only coach since 1968 to lead Essendon to a finals victory, was named as the 28th Legend of the Australian Football Hall of Fame.
Prior to embarking on his senior coaching career in 1981, he played 251 games for the Tigers between 1967 and 1979 after being recruited from VFA side Prahran, winning premierships in ’69, ‘73, and ’74. He won the club’s best and fairest in 1976 and was captain in 1978 before his retirement from playing the following year. He was later named to Richmond’s hall of fame, and their Team of the Century in the back pocket.
Sheedy was named Victorian of the Year in 2022.
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