Essendon Football Club (VFL)
| 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) | Dyson Heppell | ||
| 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) | True Value Solar Centre | ||
| 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), the sport's premier competition. Formed in 1871 as a junior club and playing as a senior club since 1878, Essendon is one of the oldest clubs in the AFL. It is historically associated with Essendon, a suburb in the north-west of Melbourne, Victoria. 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; throughout most of its history the club's home ground and headquarters was Windy Hill, Essendon. Dyson Heppell is the current team captain.
A founding member club of both the Victorian Football Association, in 1877, and the Victorian Football League (since renamed the AFL), in 1896, Essendon is one of Australia's best-known football clubs. The club claims to have over at least one million supporters Australia wide. Essendon has won 16 VFL/AFL premierships which, along with Carlton, is the most of any club in the competition.
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.
The club played its first recorded match against the Carlton second twenty on 7 June 1873, with Essendon winning by one goal. Essendon played 13 matches in its first season, winning seven, with four draws and losing two. The club was one of the inaugural junior members of the Victorian Football Association (VFA) in 1877, and began competing as a senior club from the 1878 season. During its early years in the Association, Essendon played its home matches at Flemington Hill, but moved to the East Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1881.
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