By Scott Spits
Essendon have defended Kevin Sheedy’s ambassadorial role as providing a strong return on investment, with Bombers president David Barham declaring: “We got a good deal.”
After the four-time premiership coach announced in August he was stepping down from Essendon’s board, club members backed president David Barham in his bid for a new term at Tullamarine. Barham was returned to the board alongside 2000 premiership Bomber Dean Solomon.
Essendon president David Barham.Credit: Wayne Taylor
This masthead reported in November that Sheedy was paid the overwhelming majority of $150,000 in ambassadorial payments in 2024 while he was a club director.
Essendon’s annual report refers to payments to a “director related entity for marketing, ambassador and community engagement services”. The former coach received a significant portion of the $149,175 the Bombers allotted for ambassadorial payments this year – up from $110,832 in 2023.
“The deal we have with Sheedy would be the best ambassador deal in the sport,” Barham said after the club’s annual general meeting.
“What he earns for the club is enormous value for the club. Before we did it I did the [due diligence] work. We went and checked around, got independent people to value it.
“We got a good deal. Don’t tell Sheeds.
Bombers legend Kevin Sheedy.Credit: AFL Photos
“I don’t think you’d find anyone in our membership begrudging Kevin Sheedy an ambassadorial role at Essendon.
“Name me someone who’s alive who’s done more for Essendon than Kevin Sheedy.”
Sheedy is arguably the most significant figure in Essendon history, having guided the club to all four of their premierships won since the 1960s.
Sheedy will maintain a role at Essendon in 2025 – as a paid ambassador dealing with coteries, past players, and influential sponsors, a position he occupied before his appointment to the board in October 2020.
Barham has been on the board since 2015 and faced a challenge from dual premiership player Paul Weston but prevailed with 5560 votes compared to Weston’s 3829. Melissa Verner Green (3016 votes) lost her position on the board after seven years of service.
The result was a strong show of support for Barham’s calls for patience at Essendon as the Bombers strive to build the foundations for success after a 20-year period without winning an AFL final. Their most recent premiership was won in 2000 when Solomon was a player.
Returning president Barham again urged Bombers fans to leave the heady days of the past behind as he stressed the need for unity and stability.
“Harking back to what happened in the 80s, 90s and 2000s, and just wishing things could return to that, just causes drama and disunity,” Barham said.
“The competition is so far removed from those times, it’s almost a completely different game. This is a new era.
“It’s been going for just over two years [with me as president]. The previous 20 years have no relevance to what the people here are doing. They certainly are not responsible for it.
“This vote tonight confirms that our members understand this and are moving forward united and together. Anyone or anything that is distracting from that is effectively working against the club, its membership base and its fans.
“Stable, aligned and united we will succeed.”
The club has come under scrutiny recently with some supporters reporting increases in the range of 20 to 30 per cent over a two-year period.
Essendon noted the price hikes came in the context of the club reporting an operating loss of $579,777 in 2023 and that there had been two membership prize freezes since 2020.
“We are not looking to inflict pain on our members, but we understand that it was a difficult decision and times are tough for people,” Vozzo said.
“It’s not something that we did light-hearted. It was deeply thought about.
“It was a necessary thing given that the price freezes we had in two of the years between 2021 and 2023, and our match-day costs increasing by over 34 per cent from 2019.
“We’re no longer in catch-up mode from a membership pricing point of view, and we’re now looking forward to reverting back to more moderate normal changes as we move forward, and we’re committed to that.”
Barham echoed that message. “We’ve caught up to where we should be in the market. So we think our prices will now just increase incrementally,” he said.
“We probably held our price freeze for too long.
“We had to catch up and put ourselves back on par with the other clubs.”