In 1878, Essendon played in the first match on what would be considered by modern standards to be a full-sized field at Flemington Hill.

This move away from Essendon, at a time when fans would walk to their local ground, did not go over well with many Essendon people ; and, as a consequence, a new team and club was formed in 1900, unconnected with the first ( although it played in the same colours ), that was based at the Essendon Cricket Ground, and playing in the Victorian Football Association.

The Essendon City Council, offered the ( VFL ) team the Essendon Cricket Ground, announcing that it would be prepared to spend over ₤ 12, 000 on improvements, including a new grandstand, scoreboard and re-fencing of the oval.

Indeed, after finishing third in the 1926 season, it was to be 14 years before Essendon would even contest a finals series.

Essendon did manage to make the 1968 VFL Grand Final, but lost a heartbreaker to Carlton by just three points and would not make it back to the big stage for a decade-and-a-half.

Essendon did make the finals in 1972 and 1973 under the autocratic direction of Des Tuddenham ( Collingwood ) but they were beaten badly in successive elimination finals by St. Kilda and would not taste finals action again until the very end of the decade.

Terry Daniher and his brother Neale would come via a trade with South Melbourne, and Roger Merrett joined soon afterwards to form the nucleus of what would become the formidable Essendon sides of the 1980s.

With the Bombers looking towards a new era, it was announced on 27 September that Matthew Lloyd would replace James Hird as Essendon captain for the 2006 season, marking the end of Hird's reign since he took over the captaincy in 1998.

As it turned out, 2006 would prove to be the worst season for Essendon under Sheedy, and its worst in over 70 years, with a multitude of injuries and poor form affecting the team, none more so than the serious hamstring injury suffered by newly appointed captain Lloyd.

In July 2007 and with six rounds remaining in the home and away season, Essendon was placed just outside the top Eight and on the brink of making the finals once again when it was announced that Kevin Sheedy's contract would not be renewed after 27 years.

Essendon would finish 2008 in 12th position on the AFL ladder with 8 wins and 14 losses.

Immediately after Hird retired from playing football, there was much speculation as to whether he would be interested in a coaching role at a club in the AFL, but primarily the Essendon Football Club.

On 28 September 2010 the rumours were confirmed when Essendon's CEO, Ian Robson, and Chairman, David Evans, announced at an official press conference that Hird would be the next senior coach of the Essendon Football Club.

The following round saw a match-up with Essendon that would decide either team's fate.

Following the mid year departures of other AFL senior coaches Neale Daniher, Chris Connolly and Denis Pagan, speculation mounted that Essendon would move to remove Sheedy in order to hire one of these experienced coaches or alternatively compete with the other coachless clubs for the leading candidates.

On 25 July 2007, with 6 weeks remaining until the finals, Essendon was on the brink of making the finals yet again when surprisingly it was announced by the Club that Sheedy's contract, due to expire at the end of the season, would not be renewed.

2001 was Long's final season and although Essendon made the Grand Final that year, Long aggravated a hamstring during grand final training and was forced to name himself unavailable on the eve of the game, which Essendon lost to the Brisbane Lions who would go on to win three straight premierships.

After Brisbane's grand final loss in 2004, Gary O ' Donnell announced that he would be returning to Essendon in 2005 as an assistant coach to Kevin Sheedy.

Ultimately, Essendon again managed to win successive premierships.

Nevertheless, Essendon went on to win the 1942 Premiership with Western Australian Wally Buttsworth in irrepressible form at centre half back.

In 1946, 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 ).

At the start of 1986, Essendon were considered unbackable for three successive flags, but a succession of injuries to key players Paul Van der Haar ( only fifteen games from 1986 to 1988 ), Tim Watson, Darren Williams, Roger Merrett and Simon Madden led the club to win only eight of its last eighteen games in 1986 and only nine games ( plus a draw with Geelong ) in 1987.

In 2000, Essendon won 20 consecutive matches before losing to the Western Bulldogs in round 21 and went on to win their 16th premiership, defeating and completing one of the most dominant single seasons in AFL / VFL history.

The other two wins were against eventual runners-up Sydney ( in a match where Matthew Lloyd flaunted with the Sydney defence, kicking eight goals ( six of which came in the opening quarter ) and being awarded best-on-ground in a game Essendon rightfully deserved to win ) and against the team that denied them the 2001 Premiership, the Brisbane Lions ( who also were in a rebuilding phrase ).

2007 was a much better season for Essendon, in which, despite significant wins over Adelaide ( twice ), Fremantle, St Kilda, Sydney ( by one point in Sydney ), the previous year's premiers West Coast ( their second successive win by a solitary point ) and Carlton, they missed the finals for the third year running.

Essendon was favoured to win the third of a hat-trick of premierships.

Former Essendon players such as Hird, Matthew Lloyd, and Scott Lucas, who had all taken up media roles since their retirements, were rumoured to be the subject of then-incumbent Essendon coach Matthew Knights's heated press conference following a win against St Kilda, in which Knights asserted that he and his players were now aware of certain people's position for or against him and the direction of the Essendon Football Club.

After Carey kicked another 5 goals in the first round of the finals to ensure a comfortable win over Essendon, he had kicked 45 goals in the previous nine games and averaged 22 disposals and 9 marks per game.

The 1990 Premiership team, coached by Leigh Matthews and captained by Tony Shaw, had a one-sided grand final win against Essendon, the Magpies recording a 48 point victory and ending a 32 year premiership drought which included eight grand final losses and one draw.

However, in an eventful twist to their season, the Demons have only recorded four wins since the bye in Round 5, that being a 96-point thrashing of Adelaide at the MCG in Round 7 and a convincing 33-point win over top eight side Essendon in Round 11, an 89-point thrashing of Fremantle in Round 13, and a 27-point victory over Richmond.

In 1943, Richmond broke through to beat Essendon in a thrilling Grand Final by five points, a win that the club dedicated to ex-player Bill Cosgrove, an RAF pilot who had been killed in action a few weeks before the match.

** The Brisbane Lions win the 105th AFL premiership ( Brisbane Lions 15. 18 ( 108 ) d Essendon 12. 10 ( 82 ))

Throughout the remainder of the season, the Lions were undefeated, eventually meeting and once again defeating Essendon in the Grand Final for their sixteenth consecutive win.

Ablett's seven goals, along with his 24 disposals and 14 marks, helped the Cats post a 63-point win, setting up another meeting with Essendon in the Preliminary Final.

His experience in what was a very young team was instrumental in helping Essendon win an unexpected premiership that year.

During the late 1970s, Watson's older brother Larry also played at Essendon as well as before moving to Adelaide to play with West Adelaide in 1981, going on to win the SANFL premiership with Wests in 1983.

* 29 September – The Brisbane Lions ( 15. 18. 108 ) defeat the Essendon ( 12. 10. 82 ) to win the 105th VFL / AFL premiership.

Having already moved from its ground at Kent Street, Ascot Vale (" McCracken's Paddock ") to Flemington Hill, the club was again forced to move in 1881 ; and, because the City of Essendon mayor of the day, James Taylor, considered the Essendon Cricket Ground " to be suitable only for the gentleman's game of cricket ", Essendon moved to East Melbourne.

But the low crowds for the finals meant this was never attempted again, resulting in Essendon having the unique record of winning the only two premierships without a grand final.

1959 saw another grand final loss to Melbourne, this time by 37 points, but the fact that the average age of the Essendon side was only 22 was seen as providing considerable cause for optimism.

One of the few highlights for Essendon supporters during this time was when Graham Moss won the 1976 Brownlow Medal ; he was the only Bomber to do so in a 40-year span from 1953 – 1993.

The defeat to the Bulldogs was the only defeat for Essendon throughout the entire calendar year ( Essendon also won the 2000 pre-season competition ).

Essendon struggled at the start of the 2008 home and away season, winning only two games out of their first 11.

They finally won the first semi against Essendon, and the following year took out their only premiership so far, beating Geelong and then Melbourne in the 1954 VFL Grand Final.

Prior to then, Essendon had ( and still have ) one of the worst records amongst current AFL clubs against Geelong in recent times, having only beaten the Cats once since 2003.

* Essendon wins the 1st VFL Premiership ( under the finals system used this year only, no Grand Final is played )

One wagon broke down before it had even left Royal Park and by midnight of the first day the expedition had only reached Essendon on the edge of Melbourne.

During this season the Bulldogs were the only team to defeat Essendon as Wallace employed " keepings off " tactics.

In 2001, Matthews famously used the " Predator " quote " If it bleeds, we can kill it ," to inspire his team for its Round 10 game against Essendon, who sat atop the ladder, was the defending premier, and had lost only two of its previous thirty-four games ; Brisbane finished as 28-point victors.

It is named after John Coleman, the former Essendon full forward whose spectacular career ( of 537 goals in only 98 games ) was cut short by injury.

This goalscoring ability enabled him to top the Essendon goal scoring every year from 1997 to 2009, except for 2006 when he only played three games due to a serious hamstring injury.

Simon's brother Justin was also a top class ruckman for Essendon and Carlton, and they are the only set of brothers to both play 300 games of league football.

Despite recruiting Essendon full forward Geoff Blethyn, the Tigers fell to last in 1973 with only four wins, and did even worse in 1975 with only three wins as Moss went to Essendon.