Essendon Football Club
| Essendon Football Club | |||
|---|---|---|---|
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| Names | |||
| Full name | Essendon Football Club | ||
| Nickname(s) | Bombers, Dons, Same Olds | ||
| Motto | Suaviter in Modo, Fortiter in Re (Gently in manner, resolutely in execution) | ||
| 2016 season | |||
| Home-and-away season | 18th | ||
| Leading goalkicker | Joe Daniher (43) | ||
| Best and fairest | Zach Merrett | ||
| Club details | |||
| Founded | 1871 | ||
| Colours | Red Black | ||
| Competition | Australian Football League | ||
| Chairman | Lindsay Tanner | ||
| CEO | Xavier Campbell | ||
| Coach | John Worsfold | ||
| Captain(s) | Brendon Goddard | ||
| Premierships | |||
| Ground(s) | Etihad Stadium (main venue) (capacity: 56,347) | ||
| Melbourne Cricket Ground (some games) (capacity: 100,024) | |||
| Former ground(s) | East Melbourne Cricket Ground (1897–1921) | ||
| Windy Hill (1922–91) | |||
| (1922–91) | |||
| Training ground(s) | Melbourne Airport | ||
| Uniforms | |||
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| Other information | |||
| Official website | essendonfc.com.au | ||
The Essendon Football Club is a professional Australian rules football club which plays in the Australian Football League (AFL). Essendon is one of the oldest clubs in the AFL. While the club is historically associated with the suburb of Essendon in the north-west of Melbourne, Australia it did not play its home games there until 1922 when it moved to the Essendon Recreation Reserve, later known universally as Windy Hill. Windy Hill was the club's home ground from 1922 to 1991. Prior to this the club had played on McCracken's Paddock (1873–1881), land next to the family home of club founder Robert McCracken, before moving to East Melbourne Cricket Ground where the club played between 1882 and 1921. While the club stopped playing at Windy Hill after the 1991 season the ground remained its training and administration base until October 2013. Since 2013 the club has been headquartered at the True Value Solar Centre, Melbourne Airport, and plays its home games at either Docklands Stadium or the Melbourne Cricket Ground.
An original club of both the Victorian Football Association and the Victorian Football League (VFL), Essendon is one of Australia's best-known football clubs since the inception of the national competition, the AFL, in 1990. The club has broad supporter Australia wide and is particularly well supported by indigenous communities. . Essendon has won 20 premierships overall; four in the VFA (1891, 1892, 1893, 1894) and 16 in the VFL/AFL. Only Carlton has equalled Essendon's 16 League premierships.
The club was founded by members of the Royal Agricultural Society, the Melbourne Hunt Club and the Victorian Woolbrokers. The Essendon Football Club is thought to have formed in 1872 at a meeting it the home of a well-known brewery family, the McCrackens, whose Ascot Vale property hosted a team of local junior players.
Robert McCracken, the owner of several city hotels, was the founder and first president of the Essendon club and his son, Alex, its first secretary. Alex would later become president of the newly formed VFL. Alex's cousin, Collier, who had already played with Melbourne, was the team's first captain.
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