By Peter Ryan
It was 20 years ago today …
Sergeant Sheedy taught the Bombers to play. They were guaranteed to raise a smile.
So may I introduce to you, the act you’ve known for all these years: Essendon Bombers’ Broken Hearts Club Band.
The Bombers’ drought of finals’ wins is no longer a teenager. On Wednesday, the monkey on every Bomber’s back turns 20.
It’s a birthday most of Melbourne will celebrate, while the black and red section of the population lights a lonely candle in hope.
Hope that when the tide turns, the only flood will be an emotional high.
It’s 20 years, Bomber fans.
James Hird, David Hille, Damien Cupido and Dustin Fletcher sing the song after Essendon’s most recent finals win in 2004.Credit: Wayne Taylor
Hawthorn, Melbourne, Richmond, St Kilda, Sydney (as South Melbourne) and Western Bulldogs supporters know the feeling of living through 20 years without a finals win. But no team has experienced such a drought this century, except Essendon.
Twenty years is 11 years longer than the finals-winning drought North Melbourne and Hawthorn are experiencing. And the Hawks might break theirs on Friday night with Jack Scrimshaw, who turned six on the day the Bombers prevailed, across half-back.
Unfortunately, Essendon won’t.
Gold Coast don’t play finals and won’t until they “f---ing” grow up, according to their coach Damien Hardwick, a premiership Bomber who has been involved in multiple finals wins since 2004, as a player, assistant and coach at other clubs.
Unfortunately, Essendon didn’t this year. But aren’t they supposed to be all grown up?
It was September 4, 2004, when Essendon defeated Melbourne in the elimination final to stretch their streak of years with finals wins to six.
James Hird was the captain, Kevin Sheedy the coach and star forward Matthew Lloyd kicked 96 goals for the season. Current skipper Zach Merrett was not yet nine years old. The club’s current football director, Andrew Welsh, was still 21.
Such was the club’s confidence in February 2004, the Financial Review’s Giles Parkinson wrote:
“At Essendon, the KPIs are clearly defined – on and off the field. They must reach the finals each year, finish in the top four on four occasions in a decade, and win the flag on at least two of those occasions.”
They have reached the finals six times since 2004, but they have not gone past the first week in 2009, 2011, 2014, 2017, 2019 and 2021. They have not gone out in straight sets. It has been game, set and match soon after the warm-up.
Actually, they reached the finals in seven seasons – but they were kicked out in 2013 before they even had a chance to play, making way for bitter rivals Carlton (who did, in fact, win a final that year). Oh dear.
Each successive regime pays for the sins of the past as the Bombers are now on their sixth coach since Sheedy’s departure. Since that day against the Demons, their supporters could have started and finished school without celebrating one winning final.
The loss that ended the winning run was against Geelong the following week, when AFL chairman, the late Ron Evans, and AFL CEO Andrew Demetriou preferred a night at the opera rather than watching the game.
Essendon icon Kevin Sheedy won 23 of 43 finals as Bombers coach Credit: Angela Wylie
The Cats, who finished top four this season (again) have won 23 of the 44 finals they have played since they beat the Bombers that night. Sheedy won 23 from 43 with the Bombers from 1983-2004. He broke a finals winning drought of 15 years in 1983, his third season as Essendon coach.
It might feel to Bombers supporters that a laugh is being had at their expense.
That time has gone. The daily tweets about the number of days that have passed since Essendon won a final have run out of steam (though the account is still posting regularly). Did anyone really think it would last this long?
The Beatles knew.
It was 20 years ago today ...
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