Albert Thurgood

In 1891 Essendon was the supreme side in the Association, comfortably securing the premiership with only 1 loss from 20 matches played. The following season saw the arrival of one of the club's and the game's greatest ever players, Albert Thurgood, [see footnote 1] who kicked a VFA record 56 goals for the year as Essendon once more marched triumphantly to the premiership, again with only a single defeat all season. In 1893 the team did even better, securing the premiership without losing once, and in 1894 it made it four premierships in a row with 16 wins and a draw from 18 matches. All told, Essendon won 66 and drew 8 of 77 VFA competition matches played during the period 1891-94, and if you add the 18 wins recorded in games against intercolonial opposition during that time you are left in little doubt of their pedigree.

Essendon made a welcome return to prominence in 1897, winning 14 out of 17 matches including all 3 games in the round robin finals series to conclusively clinch the inaugural VFL premiership. Notable members of the side included ruckman Charles 'Tracker' Forbes, rovers George Vautin and Arthur Cleghorn, half back and captain George Stuckey, forward Pat O'Loughlin and half forward August Officer.

The 1898 season saw Essendon participate in the club's first ever grand final but Fitzroy scored what was widely considered a surprise 15 point victory, 5.8 (38) to 3.5 (23). A crowd of 16,538 watched the match and saw Fitzroy take an early lead which was never relinquished.

Albert Thurgood returned to the club in 1899 but the Same Old had a disappointing year to finish 5th. The 1900 season saw marginal improvement with the side ending up in 3rd spot before, in 1901, celebrating the proclamation of the Commonwealth of Australia [see footnote 2] with a convincing 6.7 (43) to 2.4 (16) grand final triumph over Collingwood. Best afield was the inimitable Thurgood who kicked 3 of his side's goals including 1 from an immense place kick which was reputed to have covered 93 yards (or 85.04 metres). Others to do well in a game watched by 30,031 spectators at South Melbourne included centre half back Hugh Gavin, centreman Harry Wright, rover Bill Griffith, [see footnote 3] and follower John 'Dookie' McKenzie.

Pat O'Loughlin, a key member of Essendon's first VFL premiership side.  (Click to enlarge.)

Hercules 'Hec' Vollugi, one of the finest wingmen in the game at the start of the 20th century.  (Click to enlarge.)

By strange coincidence, three years later it was Worrall who was responsible for steering Essendon to its 7th premiership, and the 3rd since the formation of the VFL. Worrall, who had led Carlton to three consecutive premierships from 1906-8 was an immediate success with the black and reds, inspiring them to 15 wins and a draw from 18 home and away matches followed by a comfortable 21 point victory over his old club in the second semi final. In the grand final, played in front of 43,905 people at the MCG, Essendon led Collingwood narrowly at every change en route to a tense and hard fought 6 point win. Ruckman Fred Baring was best afield followed by rover Ernie Cameron, centreman Bill Sewart, wingman Pat Shea and half forward Percy Ogden. Final scores were Essendon 5.11 (41); Collingwood 4.11 (35). Football journalist 'Follower' commented that:

After the grand final Essendon travelled to Adelaide to contest the Championship of Australia against SANFL premiers West Adelaide. However, the home side won by 3 points, 8.9 (57) to 7.12 (54).

Essendon enjoyed another successful season in 1912 culminating in a 5.17 (47) to 4.9 (33) defeat of minor premiers South Melbourne in the challenge final before an Australian record attendance for any sporting event held up to that time of 54,563. As in 1911, Fred Baring was the outstanding player afield, with Bill Sewart, Percy Ogden, half back flanker Len Bowe and centre half forward Frank Caine also prominent.

The red and black era of dominance came to an abrupt end in 1913 as the Same Old dropped to 8th (out of 10) with only half a dozen wins for the year. It was to be another decade before the side would even contest a finals series. In the meantime the club actually dropped out of the league in 1916 and 1917 after proposals that "all players play as amateurs" and "all gate receipts and membership subscriptions be pooled and held in trust by the League and at the end of the season be handed over to the Patriotic Funds" [see footnote 5] were rejected by the VFL.

Mark Shea, who crossed from Fitzroy in 1905, and quickly developed into one of the classiest wingmen in the VFL.  (Click to enlarge.)

Dave Smith, a brilliant centre half forward for the Dons prior to the 1st World War, who also played Test cricket for Australia.  (Click to enlarge.)

The 1922 season saw the club re-locate to Napier Street, Essendon, after the Essendon Council indicated a willingness to spend over £12,000 to bring the facilities there up to League standard. The red and blacks celebrated by reaching the final four for the first time since 1912, eventually ending up in 3rd place.

There was better to come. In 1923 the Same Old topped the ladder with 13 wins from 16 games and then survived the indignity of a 17 point second semi final loss to South Melbourne to overcome Fitzroy, conquerors of South Melbourne, in the challenge final by the same margin. Final scores were Essendon 8.15 (63); Fitzroy 6.10 (46) with starring roles for the Same Old coming from half forward flanker George 'Tich' Shorten, centre half forward Justin McCarthy, centre half back Tom Fitzmaurice, rover Frank Maher and wingman Jack Garden.

1924 proved to be arguably the strangest year in Essendon's entire history. For the first time since 1897 there was no ultimate match, be it challenge final or grand final, to determine the premiers; instead, the top 4 clubs after the home and away season played a round robin series of matches to determine the premiers. The result was an anti climax of the highest order with Essendon, having previously defeated both Fitzroy (by 40 points) and South Melbourne (by 33 points) 'clinching' the premiership by means of a 20 point loss to Richmond. With the Tigers having already lost a match to Fitzroy by a substantial margin the Same Old were declared premiers by virtue of their superior percentage, but rarely if ever can there have been such a hollow feeling accompanying a premiership success.

There was worse to follow, with various Essendon players publicly blaming each other for the poor performance against Richmond, and then, with dissension still rife in the ranks, the side plummeted to an embarrassing 28 point loss to VFA premiers Footscray in a special charity match played a week later, purportedly (but not officially) for the championship of Victoria.

Prominent contributors to Essendon's 1924 premiership success included back pocket Clyde Donaldson, follower Norm Beckton, half back flanker Roy Laing, centreman Charlie May and rover Charlie Hardy.

While it is always difficult to assess the damage caused by events such as those which beset the Same Old at the tail end of the 1924 season it is undeniable that the club's fortunes dipped alarmingly, and persistently, in the wake of these events. Indeed, after finishing 3rd in 1926, it was to be fourteen long years before Essendon would even experience the thrill of contesting a finals series. This is all the more surprising when you consider that players of the calibre of Dick Reynolds, Keith Forbes, Jack Vosti, Roland Watt, Howard Okey, Len Webster, Edward 'Nipper' Freyer and Tom Clarke represented the red and blacks during these years.

'King Dick' Reynolds

Dick Reynolds (pictured, left), who made his Essendon debut in 1933, was one of the greatest champions that the game has ever seen. Thrice winner of the Brownlow Medal, Reynolds went on to arguably even greater achievements as a coach, a position to which he was first appointed, jointly with Harry Hunter, in 1939 (this was while Reynolds was still a player). A year later he took the reins on a solo basis and was rewarded with immediate success (at least in terms of expectations at the time which, after so long in the wilderness, were understandably somewhat modest), when the side finished 3rd. Melbourne, which defeated Essendon by just 5 points in the preliminary final, later went on to trounce Richmond by 39 points in the grand final.

In 1946, however, Essendon were clearly the VFL's supreme force, topping the ladder after the roster games and surviving a drawn second semi final against Collingwood to win through to the grand final a week later with a 10.16 (76) to 8.9 (57) triumph. Then, in the grand final against Melbourne, the Same Old put in a vintage all round performance to overhaul the Fuchsias' seven year old grand final record score by 2 points, and, of much greater significance of course, win the premiership at a canter. Final scores were Essendon 22.18 (150) to Melbourne 13.9 (87), with 7 goal centre half forward Gordon Lane, livewire rover Bill Hutchinson, and defenders Wally Buttsworth, Cec Ruddell and Harold Lambert among the linchpins of the red and blacks' success.

The 1947 grand final has to go down in he ledger as 'one of the ones that got away', Essendon losing to Carlton by a single point despite managing 30 scoring shots to 21. Then, as if to prove that lightning does occasionally strike twice, the second of the 'ones that got away' came just a year later, the Dons finishing with a lamentable 7.27 (of which full forward Bill Brittingham contributed 2.12) to tie with Melbourne (who managed 10.9) in the 1948 grand final. A week later the Same Old waved the premiership good-bye as Melbourne raced to a 13.11 (89) to 7.8 (50) triumph. The club's Annual Report made an assessment that was at once restrained and, as was soon to emerge, tacitly and uncannily prophetic:

Wally Buttsworth, best afield for Essendon in the 1942 grand final.