Andrew Walsh didn’t think twice when running into the melee in the infamous line in the sand game. He says the club has lost its mongrel – here’s how he plans to help bring it back.
Andrew Welsh charged without a second’s thought into footy’s infamous “Line in the Sand” melee.
“It’s probably the fastest I’ve ever run, getting from the halfback flank to the wing to get involved in it,” Welsh half-joked of the wild 2004 brawl between sworn enemies Hawthorn and Essendon at the MCG.
“I was playing on Angelo Lekkas and I remember him being like, ‘Mate, there’s no need to go in there’, but I just saw red.
“There were punches being thrown, knees and head butts – it was quite an experience.”
Welsh, the freshly-minted Bombers president, drew another line in the sand for his club in front of bemused diners at an Albert Park cafe on the public holiday before last month’s Geelong-Brisbane Lions grand final.
Having identified the key figures behind a mooted Essendon board challenge, Welsh sought out a meeting.
“I found out who a couple of them were,” Welsh said.
“It was me and four of them. They wanted to listen to what my view of the club was and what we needed to do, but I did feel that they were trying to align me with their view of the world … and I was very direct in saying, ‘I’m football club first and I don’t buy into factions’.
“And I probably got a little bit too direct and vocal in that conversation with them.”
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So it got a bit heated in the cafe?
“Yeah. I told them I wanted to use this period as a real galvanising one for us and those that have been disenchanted with the club for a variety of reasons,” Welsh said.
And I felt that they were trying to bring me into their political group … that they were trying to control me to try to control the club – and I said, ‘I don’t operate that way and I never will and I never have, because that’s not what the football club needs’.
“By the end of it everyone was shaking hands and smiling and they agreed that they were not going to pursue the board challenge and were fully supportive of the club and my views and what we are doing.”
Welsh shouted lunch for a group on a nearby table to make up for the commotion.
“At one point they did look over and think ‘What is happening here?’ But sometimes you’ve just got to take the opportunity to say – ‘We are not copping this as a football club. It’s not the best thing for the footy club and I’m not gonna f***ing stand for it’,” he said.
BUSY START TO PRESIDENCY
It’s been a whirlwind few weeks for Welsh, 42, since he replaced David Barham in the hot seat at Essendon.
On Wednesday, he picked up the phone to rebuke former teammate David Zaharakis over a Triple M interview in which he described the Dons as a rock-bottom “rabble”.
“It’s that sort of stuff that doesn’t help us — it causes a ripple effect through the club … but he’s just a frustrated past player because we haven’t won,” Welsh said.
“And we need to turn the needle on winning footy games.”
Unlike some who have come before him since the club’s devastating 2013 drugs scandal, Welsh fully comprehends the damage that was done to careers, lives and friendships as a result of the joint AFL-ASADA investigation.
He’s received messages of support from the feuding factions and has bought his club some valuable time to help turn the tide, for a while at least.
“I’m good friends with David Evans, I’m good friends with Paul Little and I’m good friends with James Hird — and I speak to them regularly,” Welsh said.
The family of late club doctor Bruce Reid has also reached out to the game’s youngest president.
“I know all of these people. And it’s not about looking backwards and going back to old times, but I want to build a football club that these people feel welcome back at,” he said.
“And I’ve got the ability to help with that … I’ve been overwhelmed at the response that I’ve had from a wide variety of people that I was unsure of their view of the club from experiences that they’ve had.
“It is very complex, but I think there’s a real opportunity with my personal connections to everyone involved through that period – because I was in the sheds with that group – I know all those people who went through a very challenging period personally. Every single one of them.
“So I have the ability to maybe look deeper than others probably have been able to.”
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THE SUPPLEMENTS SAGA
Pressed on whether he believed Essendon had been harshly treated in the drugs investigation, Welsh said: “No one ever tested positive. So, you go and look at that and go, ‘Well, why did this happen? How did it happen?’
It is a tough pill to swallow because in many ways it impacted negatively on a lot of good people’s lives and their families’ lives.
“Players have lost their careers. Jobe (Watson) had to give his Brownlow back.
“The club worked extremely hard to keep everyone together … but we lost the swagger and I want to get the swagger back.
“Although I didn’t play in a premiership, that is what was ingrained in me when I came to the club from people like Hirdy, Matty Lloyd, Scotty Lucas. You walk and people look because you’re Essendon – and we’ve lost that.
“And I want to get that back.”
‘IT’S AN EVOLVING INDUSTRY, ISN’T IT?’
Asked for his views on Hawthorn coach Sam Mitchell’s audacious pursuit of Essendon captain Zach Merrett, Welsh said: “It’s an evolving industry isn’t it? I don’t want our sheds raided by anyone, but we’ve got to build an Essendon environment with swagger where people don’t even think about touching us.
“There is a lot of work to do, but I’ve got the connection, I’m big on Essendon connection. I’ve got the energy I’ve got the calculated risk attitude and I’ve got a compassionate approach to be able to mend grievances with people and turn them into real allies and strengths of our footy club.”
Welsh also rejected suggestions the club had issues with Merrett meeting publicly with a group of past Essendon captains earlier this year.
“What would be the agenda other than seeking information from people who love the club? In many ways they are the most relevant people to be bouncing scenarios off,” Welsh said.
He said the club also made no apologies for a contentious meeting between club chiefs and players in June regarding the AFL’s illicit drugs policy.
“We will continue to help and educate our players on issues out there in society – their parents instil in us doing that,” he said.
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SOLOMON ‘SWAGGER’
Welsh is married to wife Kendell and has three kids Maya (11), Sadie (9) and Roy (6).
He said former teammate and Dons director Dean Solomon was a key figure in his plan to bring that “swagger” back to Essendon.
“Solly’s (Solomon) challenge is that he lives in northern New South Wales … but I talk to him nearly every day, sometimes 20 times a day,” he said.
“He is passionate about the club – hence the email that he sent out (to almost 400 former players seeking support for Welsh’s appointment).”
INJURY PAIN
Asked about criticism of coach Brad Scott, Welsh said: “The challenge this year is that Brad had no one to coach. Fifteen debutants. No, that’s not good.
So Brad didn’t have the ability to embed the next level of his coaching program – and he had to come into the club because the standards weren’t at an AFL level from the players’ perspective.
“So he needed to be firm and I was right in his corner around getting the standards of training, the environment, up to a really high level. Now it’s around working on those connection areas between the whole football club – off-field staff, on-field staff, coaching staff, board. We need to be better connected.
“He’s on board with that.”
On whether he believed Hird still harboured ambitions to coach the club, Welsh said: “He’s been clear on his position and his business is going extremely well. There’s a group of us that catch up for lunch and it never gets discussed.”
Welsh confirmed Port Adelaide coach Ken Hinkley was “someone we’d love to get to the football club” to help bolster a football department that already includes new high-performance boss Mathew Inness.
For the second straight year Welsh attended the draft combine and took part in interviewing potential Bombers recruits.
He also admitted he had little interest in football politics beyond helping Essendon, including the ongoing presidential bunfight over a replacement for AFL Commission chairman Richard Goyder.
“My focus at the moment is on our footy club and every second I’ve got is going into that,” Welsh said.
THE PROPERTY MOGUL
In a twist of fate, Welsh retired after 162 games in the red and black following a serious ankle injury in late 2011, just one month before Essendon’s ill-fated supplements program began.
The son of a builder, Welsh, who attended Essendon Keilor College and collected trolleys at Melbourne Airport for pocket money, always had an eye on a serious career after football.
His mentors included former Essendon presidents Ray Horsburgh and Paul Little and property tycoon Mark Casey, an influential Essendonian coterie member.
“It was always property that interested me,” Welsh said.
“One of my feedback points when I was playing later in my career was that some of the players would have liked to see me at the club on my day off to play in the ping pong competition.
“And I get it, but your day off is not a time to come to the club and play ping pong. And I was no good at it anyway.
“So, I would go and spend time with people like ‘Case’. I’d pack the surfboard and spend the day with him at Torquay (near Casey’s major development at Armstrong Creek).”
One of Welsh’s first business ventures was hiring out portable toilets and temporary fencing to construction firms.
“I was still playing at that point and we picked up some great contracts, but I sold out of that,” he said.
BIG BUSINESS
After knocking on doors to secure farmland for a development at Thornhill Park in Melbourne’s outer west, Welsh formed his own property development company Wel. Co, now headquartered in Southbank.
He has major projects in Victoria, South Australia and Queensland with more than 12,000 “new homes in our pipeline” and is worth a reported $400 million.
Welsh has come a long way since that line in the sand game as a 21-year-old footballer when he was unsure if he could even afford to pay the $3500 fine for engaging in a melee.
Casey described Welsh as “a man of integrity” who had “never taken a backward step in footy, property development or in life”.
“Everyone will know exactly where they stand with him,” Casey said.
I think he’ll also be able to bring back the culture that he had when he was at Essendon – the golden years of the early 2000s when all the players were as one.
“He’s been in a successful environment and he knows what it takes to run a successful organisation. He’s Essendon through and through.”
Welsh was initially reluctant to join the Bombers board when first approached by Barham and Kevin Sheedy in 2022, but said the move had rekindled his passion for the club.
“I didn’t lose my love of the footy club, I just forgot how good the footy club was,” Welsh said.
“And these last couple of years have reignited in me how good it is. We just need to get it back there, which is what we’re working on doing now.
“We’ve got to be united and I feel that I’m well placed to help remind a lot of people of how good it is when we’ve got the place up and running and we’ve got our swagger back.”
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