Letter from the President: Mid-season Update

As our AFL program pauses for a few days of crucial rest and recovery, I write to you with a mid-season update before a strong finish to the 2025 season.

I want to thank every member and supporter for your unwavering support so far this season. The board and executive of the club are continually grateful for the commitment and loyalty of our Bomber fanbase. After 14 matches, we’ve had more than 730,000 fans attend our games and we currently sit third on the AFL table for crowd attendance, with more than 50,000 fans on average attending our matches.

On field, we currently sit 6 wins and 8 losses for the season. We have had some good wins, particularly against Sydney and Melbourne, but a couple of bad losses to the Bulldogs and Geelong. We’ve had a couple of near misses in Brisbane and Carlton.

Like every AFL season, this year has certainly brought its share of ups and downs.

While we always maintain our week-to-week focus on winning every single game, a disappointing part of our season to date has been our lengthy injury list. The exciting part, is that the future of our club, is unfolding right before our eyes on a weekly basis.

Congratulations to Vigo Visentini, who was our 11th debutant for the year on Thursday night against Fremantle. He was our 5th debutant in our last 5 games.

The last time the Essendon football club debuted a player in 5+ consecutive matches was Rounds 1-6 in 1958! That is 67 years ago.

That group of debutants included Ken Fraser and Ron Evans.

Due to our extensive injury list, which I will address later, this is the current reality of our team, and I want to applaud our coaching team and wider Football Department staff for their ability to innovate mid-season to adjust for the changing nature of the team.

Our coaches, led by Brad Scott, have adapted both our gameplan and team composition, to maximise our performances, and that has been impressive.

Not only that, but they have backed in our young players and given them an opportunity to shine.

Over the past couple of years, we have heavily invested in, and aspired to build, an elite development program. This is rapidly starting to pay off and we will continue investing heavily in this area.

The way our young players have been able to come straight into the AFL team and perform, is proof, that what we are doing is working.

It is also highlighted by the improved performance of our VFL team, the synergy in the way it plays, adopting the same style and approach as our AFL team, has been noticeable and effective. It too is playing with a reduced availability and has been impressive competing strongly in every game.

Visentini joined an impressive list of Bomber first gamers this year, including Isaac Kako, Tom Edwards, Saad El-Hawli, Archer Day-Wicks, Lewis Hayes, Angus Clarke, Zak Johnson, Luamon Lual, Archie May, and Lachie Blakiston.

And these players aren’t just making their debuts; they are having a genuine impact. Angus Clarke joins Archie Roberts and Nate Caddy as our AFL Rising Star nominations for this year.

The fact that we’ve used 39 players this season, is a positive for the development of our playing list, for the medium to long term, but the lack of continuity of the AFL team has no doubt impacted our outcomes.

39 players used this season is the most in the AFL, it is two more than Carlton, and three more than Port Adelaide and St Kilda.

Unfortunately, we have had an extensive injury list this season, some of which is made up of injuries that we can categorise as bad luck. 3 ACL’s, a torn Achilles and an ongoing concussion issue, are just that, bad luck. Likewise, that a lot of our injuries are to our taller players, again just bad luck.

However, we are taking our current injury position very seriously and are determined to do all the necessary work needed to improve in this important area.

AFLW Season 10 is upon us, and we’ve landed a great fixture including a record six matches at our home, Windy Hill. After record crowds in 2024, marquee matchups will again feature at Windy Hill, bolstering community spirit within the Essendon region, and hopefully encouraging more fans to don the sash.

Windy Hill is the home of the Bombers. And it means so much, to so many people, as an asset for the whole community. We are excited and committed to continue working with all stakeholders, reinvigorating Windy Hill as a place for all in the Essendon and broader community.

We want to make it a sea of red and black throughout the AFLW season, where our club and the community come together to cheer on our AFLW heroes.

This club is owned by you, our members. No-one working inside the Essendon Football Club ever forgets this. And we want your voice to help shape the future of our club. Keep an eye on your inbox during our bye week for the Mid-Season Member Survey. It's your chance to share your experiences from this season and to directly influence our future membership offerings. We value your input and want to hear from you.

We tackle the post mid-season bye matches with great optimism and excitement.

We will welcome back some experienced stars in Jordan Ridley, Kyle Langford and Mason Redman, along with Sam Durham, Zach Reid and Saad El-Hawli all pushing for immediate selection.

We play seven of our last nine games in Victoria – featuring our community game against Gold Coast, Challenge game against GWS and three big Friday night fixtures against St Kilda, Geelong and the Western Bulldogs.

We countdown to a celebration of 250 games for our skipper Zach Merrett who has led us again this season with courage, passion, and incredible resolve. Zach continues to drive this playing group to the highest-standard and we’re confident he will lead us to the success we are all striving for.

Post the bye, selection meetings for our coaches will go much longer and be much harder.

We’re very confident the gains we’ve made because of the recent adversity, the development of some seriously promising young talent, will hold us in good stead when more players return.

We are strongly focussed on finishing the 2025 season with great momentum.

I encourage every Essendon fan to watch, listen, read and engage with our young playing group.

These are household names of the future and your support behind them will only enhance the speed of our return to the top positions of the AFL ladder.

Thanks for sticking with us and continuing to support the Essendon Football Club. This club is changing right before our eyes, and if we stay united with a shared purpose, we'll all be rewarded.

Go Bombers.

Dave

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