Time On: Kevin Sheedy declines to kick on with 1993 grand final premiership stars

Bombers legends have come together to celebrate the glory days of their 1993 premiership win during a lively three-day affair - but their former coach wasn’t there for the last hurrah Sunday night.

Time On is your Monday wrap-up of all the footy gossip and banter from the weekend.

The 1993 Essendon premiership reunion spilled over from Friday night into Sunday night and many may still be going.

Players Joe Misiti, Dustin Fletcher, Darren Bewick, Sean Denham, Gavin Wanganeen and Gary O’Donnell gathered in the Essendon rooms after the win over arch enemy Carlton.

But one man you didn’t see in there and you won’t, is the old coach Kevin Sheedy.

Essendon Captain Mark Thompson and coach Kevin Sheedy hold up the Premiership Cup after the 1993 Grand Final. Picture: supplied

A current board member, Sheedy says it’s not his place to “dance around when they win”. He loved the reunion on Friday night, particularly Mark Mercuri’s speech after he was inducted into the Essendon Hall of Fame.

“It was special, he made a comment that his mum doesn’t really know much about footy, she thought he’d get hurt so she only went to grand finals. Love that,’’ Sheedy said.

The other thing he noted: “All the women still reckon Wanganeen and Mercuri are hot.”

Misiti said best on ground during celebrations had been O’Donnell and Denham.

Actor Eric Bana will go down the slide as part of this year's Big Freeze at the G. Picture: Michael Klein

Bana’s no fan of Butler suspension

Eric Bana had an interesting reaction to Dan Butler’s one week suspension with the Saints tragic tweeting “Yeah naaaaaahhhh” in reply to a clip of the incident. Bana is no mug when it comes to footy knowledge and attends just about every game. He said the only round he’s missed was Gather Round in Adelaide and revealed an addiction to watching AFL360 on Fox Footy. He said one of the reasons he wanted to do the slide as part of this year’s Big Freeze at the G was because he remembers when Neale and Bec Daniher went on the show it its early days.

Tom Papley of the Swans was a guest on Channel 7’s cricket coverage from the World Test Championship in London this week. Picture: Getty Images

James Brayshaw’s new nickname for Swan’s gun Tom Papley went down like a lead balloon. Picture: Tim Carrafa

Stick to calling games, Brayshaw

Sydney goalsneak Tom Papley has taken exception to a new nickname given to him by commentator James Brayshaw. Papley was a guest on Channel 7’s cricket coverage from the World Test Championship in London during the week. Brayshaw called him ‘Trash Panda’ and didn’t get a favourable response.

“I don’t know about this trash panda, JB, like come on,” said Papley, renowned for his enthusiastic goal celebrations.

“It was a name given to you by the fans,” Brayshaw insisted. “I don’t know mate, wear it as a badge of honour.”

Papley was still having none of it. “Trash panda – you’ve got something better than that don’t you.”

Hawks legend Campbell Brown has hit back over claims his former club is tanking their 2023 season. Picture: Stamping Ground

Tanking? Not at Hawks HQ

Hawthorn’s spirited performance on Saturday against the Lions brought out a unity from past players.

Campbell Brown tweeted his disgust in those who previously brought up the notion of tanking and his former teammate Shane Crawford retweeted the sentiment with a comment “well played”.

Brown wrote: “Imagine creating a narrative after 8 qtrs of football that @HawthornFC were ‘tanking.’ Absolutely embarrassing journalism to those that fuelled that garbage after 2 rounds.”

We hear many former players and greats were at the ground on Saturday including Trent Croad, Michael Tuck, Don Scott, Peter Knights, Daniel Harford, David Parkin and Rodney Eade.

Ex-Richmond player Ben Cousins made a surprise return to the club rooms after Saturday night’s win. Picture: News Limited

Cousins’ surprise return to the Tiger den

It seemed the most popular in Richmond’s rooms after Saturday night’s win weren’t the baker boys supporting milestone man Liam Baker, but former player and Perth local Ben Cousins.

Cousins had visited Richmond training during the week where players lined up to get pictures with the Eagles premiership midfielder who played 32 games with the Tigers.

Trent Cotchin, due to play his 300th game this week, was seen in deep conversation with Cousins.

Originally published as Time On: Kevin Sheedy declines to kick on with 1993 grand final premiership stars