Illustrating the Bombers

by LES EVERETT

A PROBLEM with big histories of football clubs is that things keep ticking along. So you don't want to release a definitive story of a club in the year of a defining moment - like a premiership.

There was no premiership for Essendon in 2007 but it was a very big year.

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The history of the Essendon Football club has been wel documented.

Former player and president Ron Evans died a short time after stepping down as chairman of the AFL commission. Four-time premiership coach Kevin Sheedy was told his contract would not be renewed. And champion player James Hird retired and won the club best and fairest award.

As it turned out the timing of An Illustrated History of Essendon Football Clubis just about perfect. The compilers of this quite lavish production have been spared the temptation of focusing too much on Sheedy and Hird while dedicating the book to the memory of Evans.

The book is very accessible with bite-sized profiles of players and administrators so has a very good chance of actually being read.

There is something about Essendon that makes them easy to admire and hard to hate... Geelong supporter John Harms sums it up well in his essay The Sworn Enemy that is a surprising but welcome inclusion in this book. "The Bombers beat you nicely. They beat you because they believe they're entitled to. And so I'm left wondering why I don't resent the Bombers' record; why they don't drive me crazy."

Of course the book is an illustrated history and the photographs are superb... Bombers fans will love it.

An Illustrated History of Essendon Football Club is published by GSP Publishing.

15 December 2007

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