title: Maya-class destroyer

text: Future armaments for the ships is slated to include locally built railgun and laser point-defense system.


title: Maya-class destroyer

text: These ships have a helicopter deck aft and can carry one helicopter in their hangar. Although they do not carry helicopters typically, especially on JS "Haguro", all the necessary equipment is already installed and the helicopter can be put into operation immediately once the aircraft and its personnel are on board.


title: Maya-class destroyer

text: On 16 November 2022, the guided-missile destroyer fired an SM-3 Block IIA missile, successfully intercepting the target outside the atmosphere in the first launch of the missile from a Japanese warship. On 18 November 2022, the likewise fired an SM-3 Block IB missile with a successful hit outside the atmosphere. Both test firings were conducted at the Pacific Missile Range Facility on Kauai Island, Hawaii, in cooperation with the U.S. Navy and U.S. Missile Defense Agency. This was the first time the two ships conducted SM-3 firings in the same time period, and the tests validated the ballistic missile defense capabilities of Japan’s newest s.


title: Maya-class destroyer

text: "Maya" shares her name with the World War II era Japanese "Takao"-class heavy cruiser "Maya", while "Haguro" shares her name with "Myōkō"-class heavy cruiser "Haguro".


title: X86 calling conventions

text: This article describes the calling conventions used when programming x86 architecture microprocessors.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: Another closely related topic is name mangling, which determines how symbol names in the code are mapped to symbol names used by the linker. Calling conventions, type representations, and name mangling are all part of what is known as an application binary interface (ABI).


title: X86 calling conventions

text: There are subtle differences in how various compilers implement these conventions, so it is often difficult to interface code which is compiled by different compilers. On the other hand, conventions which are used as an API standard (such as stdcall) are very uniformly implemented.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: Prior to microcomputers, the machine manufacturer generally provided an operating system and compilers for several programming languages. The calling convention(s) for each platform were those defined by the manufacturer's programming tools.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: Early microcomputers before the Commodore Pet and Apple II generally came without an OS or compilers. The IBM PC came with Microsoft's fore-runner to Windows, the Disk Operating System (DOS), but it did not come with a compiler. The only hardware standard for IBM PC-compatible machines was defined by the Intel processors (8086, 80386) and the literal hardware IBM shipped. Hardware extensions and all software standards (save for a BIOS calling convention) were thrown open to market competition.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: A multitude of independent software firms offered operating systems, compilers for many programming languages, and applications. Many different calling schemes were implemented by the firms, often mutually exclusive, based on different requirements, historical practices, and programmer creativity.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: After the IBM-compatible market shakeout, Microsoft operating systems and programming tools (with differing conventions) predominated, while second-tier firms like Borland and Novell, and open-source projects like GCC, still maintained their own standards. Provisions for interoperability between vendors and products were eventually adopted, simplifying the problem of choosing a viable convention.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: The cdecl (which stands for C declaration) is a calling convention for the C programming language and is used by many C compilers for the x86 architecture. In cdecl, subroutine arguments are passed on the stack. Integer values and memory addresses are returned in the EAX register, floating point values in the ST0 x87 register. Registers EAX, ECX, and EDX are caller-saved, and the rest are callee-saved. The x87 floating point registers ST0 to ST7 must be empty (popped or freed) when calling a new function, and ST1 to ST7 must be empty on exiting a function. ST0 must also be empty when not used for returning a value.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: In the context of the C programming language, function arguments are pushed on the stack in the right-to-left order, i.e. the last argument is pushed first.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: The cdecl calling convention is usually the default calling convention for x86 C compilers, although many compilers provide options to automatically change the calling conventions used. To manually define a function to be cdecl, some support the following syntax:


title: X86 calling conventions

text: There are some variations in the interpretation of cdecl. As a result, x86 programs compiled for different operating system platforms and/or by different compilers can be incompatible, even if they both use the "cdecl" convention and do not call out to the underlying environment.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: In regard to how to return values, some compilers return simple data structures with a length of 2 registers or less in the register pair EAX:EDX, and larger structures and class objects requiring special treatment by the exception handler (e.g., a defined constructor, destructor, or assignment) are returned in memory. To pass "in memory", the caller allocates memory and passes a pointer to it as a hidden first parameter; the callee populates the memory and returns the pointer, popping the hidden pointer when returning.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: In Linux, GCC sets the "de facto" standard for calling conventions. Since GCC version 4.5, the stack must be aligned to a 16-byte boundary when calling a function (previous versions only required a 4-byte alignment).


title: X86 calling conventions

text: This is similar to cdecl in that arguments are pushed right-to-left. EAX, ECX, and EDX are not preserved. The size of the parameter list in doublewords is passed in AL.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: Arguments are pushed right-to-left. The three first (leftmost) arguments are passed in EAX, EDX, and ECX and up to four floating-point arguments are passed in ST0 through ST3, although space for them is reserved in the argument list on the stack. Results are returned in EAX or ST0. Registers EBP, EBX, ESI, and EDI are preserved.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: In these conventions, the callee cleans up the arguments from the stack. Functions which use these conventions are easy to recognize in ASM code because they will unwind the stack after returning. The x86 instruction allows an optional 16-bit parameter that specifies the number of stack bytes to release after returning to the caller. Such code looks like this:


title: X86 calling conventions

text: Conventions entitled fastcall or register have not been standardized, and have been implemented differently, depending on the compiler vendor. Typically register based calling conventions pass one or more arguments in registers which reduces the number of memory accesses required for the call and thus make them usually faster.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: Based on the Borland Pascal programming language's calling convention, the parameters are pushed on the stack in left-to-right order (opposite of cdecl), and the callee is responsible


title: X86 calling conventions

text: This calling convention was common in the following 16-bit APIs: OS/2 1.x, Microsoft Windows 3.x, and Borland Delphi version 1.x. Modern versions of the Windows API use stdcall, which still has the callee restoring the stack as in the Pascal convention, but the parameters are now pushed right to left.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: The stdcall calling convention is a variation on the Pascal calling convention in which the callee is responsible for cleaning up the stack, but the parameters are pushed onto the stack in right-to-left order, as in the _cdecl calling convention. Registers EAX, ECX, and EDX are designated for use within the function. Return values are stored in the EAX register.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: Microsoft convention (aka ) passes the first two arguments (evaluated left to right) that fit, into ECX and EDX. Remaining arguments are pushed onto the stack from right to left. When the compiler compiles for IA64 or AMD64, it ignores the keyword and uses the one 64-bit calling convention instead.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: Other compilers like GCC, Clang, and ICC provide similar "fastcall" calling conventions, although they are not necessarily compatible with each other or with Microsoft fastcall.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: The first two arguments are passed in the left to right order, and the third argument is pushed on the stack. There is no stack cleanup, as stack cleanup is performed by the callee. The disassembly of the callee function is:


title: X86 calling conventions

text: As the two arguments were passed through the registers and only one parameter was pushed in the stack, the pushed value is being cleared by the retn instruction, as int is 4 bytes in size in x86 systems.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: In Visual Studio 2013, Microsoft introduced the calling convention in response to efficiency concerns from game, graphic, video/audio, and codec developers. The scheme allows for larger vector types (, , , ) to be passed in registers as opposed to on the stack.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: For IA-32 and x64 code, is similar to and the original x64 calling conventions respectively, but extends them to support passing vector arguments using SIMD registers. In IA-32, the integer values are passed as usual, and the first six SIMD (XMM/YMM0-5) registers hold up to six floating-point, vector, or HVA values sequentially from left to right, regardless of actual positions caused by, e.g. an int argument appearing between them. In x64, however, the rule from the original x64 convention still apply, so that XMM/YMM0-5 only hold floating-point, vector, or HVA arguments when they happen to be the first through the sixth.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: The Clang compiler and the Intel C++ Compiler also implement vectorcall. ICC has a similar, earlier convention called ; it is also supported by Clang.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: Evaluating arguments from left to right, it passes three arguments via EAX, EDX, ECX. Remaining arguments are pushed onto the stack, also left to right. It is the default calling convention of the 32-bit compiler of Delphi, where it is known as "register". This calling convention is also used by Embarcadero's C++Builder, where it is called "__fastcall". In this compiler, Microsoft's "fastcall" can be used as "__msfastcall".


title: X86 calling conventions

text: GCC and Clang can be made to use a similar calling convention by using with the function attribute or the switch. (The stack order is inverted.) It is also possible to produce a caller clean-up variant using or extend this to also use SSE registers. A -based version is used by the Linux kernel on i386 since version 2.6.20 (released February 2007).


title: X86 calling conventions

text: Watcom does not support the "__fastcall" keyword except to alias it to null. The register calling convention may be selected by command line switch. (However, IDA uses "__fastcall" anyway for uniformity.)


title: X86 calling conventions

text: Up to 4 registers are assigned to arguments in the order EAX, EDX, EBX, ECX. Arguments are assigned to registers from left to right. If any argument cannot be assigned to a register (say it is too large) it, and all subsequent arguments, are assigned to the stack. Arguments assigned to the stack are pushed from right to left. Names are mangled by adding a suffixed underscore.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: The Watcom C/C++ compiler also uses the directive that allows the user to specify their own calling convention. As its manual states, "Very few users are likely to need this method, but if it is needed, it can be a lifesaver".


title: X86 calling conventions

text: The first four integer parameters are passed in registers eax, ebx, ecx and edx. Floating point parameters are passed on the floating point stack – registers st0, st1, st2, st3, st4, st5 and st6. Structure parameters are always passed on the stack. Additional parameters are passed on the stack after registers are exhausted. Integer values are returned in eax, pointers in edx and floating point types in st0.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: In Delphi and Free Pascal on Microsoft Windows, the safecall calling convention encapsulates COM (Component Object Model) error handling, thus exceptions aren't leaked out to the caller, but are reported in the HRESULT return value, as required by COM/OLE. When calling a safecall function from Delphi code, Delphi also automatically checks the returned HRESULT and raises an exception if necessary.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: The safecall calling convention is the same as the stdcall calling convention, except that exceptions are passed back to the caller in EAX as a HResult (instead of in FS:[0]), while the function result is passed by reference on the stack as though it were a final "out" parameter. When calling a Delphi function from Delphi this calling convention will appear just like any other calling convention, because although exceptions are passed back in EAX, they are automatically converted back to proper exceptions by the caller. When using COM objects created in other languages, the HResults will be automatically raised as exceptions, and the result for Get functions is in the result rather than a parameter. When creating COM objects in Delphi with safecall, there is no need to worry about HResults, as exceptions can be raised as normal but will be seen as HResults in other languages.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: Returns a result and raises exceptions like a normal Delphi function, but it passes values and exceptions as though it was:


title: X86 calling conventions

text: This calling convention is used for calling C++ non-static member functions. There are two primary versions of thiscall used depending on the compiler and whether or not the function uses a variable number of arguments.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: For the GCC compiler, thiscall is almost identical to cdecl: The caller cleans the stack, and the parameters are passed in right-to-left order. The difference is the addition of the this pointer, which is pushed onto the stack last, as if it were the first parameter in the function prototype.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: On the Microsoft Visual C++ compiler, the this pointer is passed in ECX and it is the "callee" that cleans the stack, mirroring the stdcall convention used in C for this compiler and in Windows API functions. When functions use a variable number of arguments, it is the caller that cleans the stack (cf. cdecl).


title: X86 calling conventions

text: The thiscall calling convention can only be explicitly specified on Microsoft Visual C++ 2005 and later. On any other compiler "thiscall" is not a keyword. (However, disassemblers, such as IDA, must specify it. So IDA uses keyword "__thiscall" for this.)


title: X86 calling conventions

text: Another part of a calling convention is which registers are guaranteed to retain their values after a subroutine call.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: According to the Intel ABI to which the vast majority of compilers conform, the EAX, EDX, and ECX are to be free for use within a procedure or function, and need not be preserved.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: As the name implies, these general-purpose registers usually hold temporary (volatile) information, that can be overwritten by any subroutine.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: Therefore, it is the caller's responsibility to push each of these registers onto the stack, if it would like to restore their values after a subroutine call.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: The other registers are used to hold long-lived values (non-volatile), that should be preserved across calls.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: In other words, when the caller makes a procedure call, it can expect that those registers will hold the same value after the callee returns.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: Thus, making it the callee's responsibility to both save (push at the beginning) and restore (pop accordingly) them before returning to the caller. As in the previous case, this practice should only be done on registers that the callee changes.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: x86-64 calling conventions take advantage of the additional register space to pass more arguments in registers. Also, the number of incompatible calling conventions has been reduced. There are two in common use.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: The Microsoft x64 calling convention is followed on Windows and pre-boot UEFI (for long mode on x86-64). The first four arguments are placed onto the registers. That means RCX, RDX, R8, R9 for integer, struct or pointer arguments (in that order), and XMM0, XMM1, XMM2, XMM3 for floating point arguments. Additional arguments are pushed onto the stack (right to left). Integer return values (similar to x86) are returned in RAX if 64 bits or less. Floating point return values are returned in XMM0.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: Structs and unions with sizes that match integers are passed and returned as if they were integers. Otherwise they are replaced with a pointer when used as an argument. When an oversized struct return is needed, another pointer to a caller-provided space is prepended as the first argument, shifting all other arguments to the right by one place.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: When compiling for the x64 architecture in a Windows context (whether using Microsoft or non-Microsoft tools), stdcall, thiscall, cdecl, and fastcall all resolve to using this convention.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: In the Microsoft x64 calling convention, it is the caller's responsibility to allocate 32 bytes of "shadow space" on the stack right before calling the function (regardless of the actual number of parameters used), and to pop the stack after the call. The shadow space is used to spill RCX, RDX, R8, and R9, but must be made available to all functions, even those with fewer than four parameters.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: The registers RAX, RCX, RDX, R8, R9, R10, R11 are considered volatile (caller-saved).<ref name="Caller/Callee Saved Registers"></ref>


title: X86 calling conventions

text: The registers RBX, RBP, RDI, RSI, RSP, R12, R13, R14, and R15 are considered nonvolatile (callee-saved).


title: X86 calling conventions

text: For example, a function taking 5 integer arguments will take the first to fourth in registers, and the fifth will be pushed on top of the shadow space. So when the called function is entered, the stack will be composed of (in ascending order) the return address, followed by the shadow space (32 bytes) followed by the fifth parameter.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: In x86-64, Visual Studio 2008 stores floating point numbers in XMM6 and XMM7 (as well as XMM8 through XMM15); consequently, for x86-64, user-written assembly language routines must preserve XMM6 and XMM7 (as compared to x86 wherein user-written assembly language routines did not need to preserve XMM6 and XMM7). In other words, user-written assembly language routines must be updated to save/restore XMM6 and XMM7 before/after the function when being ported from x86 to x86-64.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: Starting with Visual Studio 2013, Microsoft introduced the calling convention which extends the x64 convention.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: The calling convention of the System V AMD64 ABI is followed on Solaris, Linux, FreeBSD, macOS, and is the de facto standard among Unix and Unix-like operating systems. The OpenVMS Calling Standard on x86-64 is based on the System V ABI with some extensions needed for backwards compatibility. The first six integer or pointer arguments are passed in registers RDI, RSI, RDX, RCX, R8, R9 (R10 is used as a static chain pointer in case of nested functions), while XMM0, XMM1, XMM2, XMM3, XMM4, XMM5, XMM6 and XMM7 are used for the first floating point arguments. As in the Microsoft x64 calling convention, additional arguments are passed on the stack. Integer return values up to 64 bits in size are stored in RAX while values up to 128 bit are stored in RAX and RDX. Floating-point return values are similarly stored in XMM0 and XMM1. The wider YMM and ZMM registers are used for passing and returning wider values in place of XMM when they exist.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: If the callee wishes to use registers RBX, RSP, RBP, and R12–R15, it must restore their original values before returning control to the caller. All other registers must be saved by the caller if it wishes to preserve their values.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: For leaf-node functions (functions which do not call any other function(s)), a 128-byte space is stored just beneath the stack pointer of the function. The space is called the red zone. This zone will not be clobbered by any signal or interrupt handlers. Compilers can thus use this zone to save local variables. Compilers may omit some instructions at the starting of the function (adjustment of RSP, RBP) by using this zone. However, other functions may clobber this zone. Therefore, this zone should only be used for leaf-node functions. and offer the flag to disable red-zone optimizations.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: If the callee is a variadic function, then the number of floating point arguments passed to the function in vector registers must be provided by the caller in the AL register.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: Unlike the Microsoft calling convention, a shadow space is not provided; on function entry, the return address is adjacent to the seventh integer argument on the stack.


title: X86 calling conventions

text: This is a list of x86 calling conventions. These are conventions primarily intended for C/C++ compilers (especially the 64-bit part below), and thus largely special cases. Other languages may use other formats and conventions in their implementations.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed the Bombers, is a professional Australian rules football club. The club plays in the Australian Football League (AFL), the game's premier competition. The club was formed by the McCracken family in their Ascot Vale home "Alisa", and while the exact date is unknown, it is generally accepted to have been in 1872. The club’s first recorded game took place on 7 June 1873 against a Carlton Second 20. From 1878 until 1896, the club played in the Victorian Football Association then joined seven other clubs in October 1896 to form the breakaway Victorian Football League (later changed to AFL in 1990). Headquartered at the Essendon Recreation Ground, known as Windy Hill, from 1922 to 2013, the club moved to The Hangar in near Tullamarine in late 2013 on land owned the Melbourne Airport. The club currently plays its home games at either Docklands Stadium or the Melbourne Cricket Ground. Dyson Heppell is the current club captain.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Essendon is one of Australia's best-known and most successful football clubs. It has won 16 VFL/AFL premierships, which, along with Carlton, is the most of any club in the competition. The club won four consecutive VFA premierships between 1891 and 1894, a feat unmatched in that competition's history. However, Essendon has struggled to remain competitive in the 21st century, having won its last premiership in 2000 and not winning a final since 2004.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: During the early-to-mid 2010s, the team were the focus of an investigation by the AFL and independent regulatory bodies into their alleged use of illegal substances during the 2012 season, which led to 34 two-year suspensions, a $2 million fine, and disqualification from the 2013 finals series (among other penalties).


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Three Essendon players—John Coleman, Bill Hutchison, and Dick Reynolds—and one coach, Kevin Sheedy, are classified as "Legends" in the Australian Football Hall of Fame.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Essendon also fields reserves men's and women's teams in the Victoria Football League and VFL Women's, respectively. Since 2022, it has a team competing in the national AFL Women's competition.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: 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.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Robert McCracken (1813–1885), the owner of several city hotels, was the founder and first president of the Essendon Football club, and his son, Alex McCracken, its first secretary. Alex later became president of the newly formed VFL. Alex's cousin Collier McCracken, who had already played with Melbourne, was the team's first captain.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: The club played its first recorded match against the Carlton Second Twenty (the reserves) 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 it 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 it moved to the East Melbourne Cricket Ground in 1881.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: In 1878, at Flemington Hill, Essendon played its first match on what would be considered by modern standards to be a full-sized field. In 1879, Essendon played Melbourne in one of the earliest night matches recorded when the ball was painted white. In 1883, the team played four matches in eight days in Adelaide: losing to Norwood (on 23 June) and defeating Port Adelaide (on 16 June), a combined South Australian team (on 18 June), and South Adelaide (on 20 June).


title: Essendon Football Club

text: In 1891, Essendon won their first VFA premiership, which they repeated in 1892, 1893 and 1894. One of the club's greatest players, Albert Thurgood, played for the club during this period, making his debut in 1892. Essendon (18 wins, 2 draws) was undefeated in the 1893 season.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: At the end of the 1896 season, Essendon, along with seven other clubs, formed the Victorian Football League. Essendon's first VFL game was in 1897 against Geelong at Corio Oval in Geelong. Essendon won its first VFL premiership by winning the 1897 VFL finals series in a round-robin event. Essendon again won the premiership in 1901, defeating Collingwood in the Grand Final. The club won successive premierships in 1911 and 1912 over Collingwood and South Melbourne, respectively.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: The club is recorded as having played at McCracken's Paddock, Glass's Paddock, and Flemington Hill. It is likely that these are three different names for the one ground, given that McCracken's Paddock was a parcel of land that sat within the larger Glass's Paddock, which in turn was situated in an area widely known at the time as Flemington Hill. In 1882, the club moved home games to the East Melbourne Cricket Ground (since demolished) after an application to play on the Essendon Cricket Ground (later known as Windy Hill) was voted down by Lord Mayor of the City of Essendon, James Taylor, on the basis that the considered the Essendon Cricket Ground "to be suitable only for the gentleman's game of cricket".


title: Essendon Football Club

text: The club became known by the nickname "the Same Old Essendon", from the title and hook of the principal song performed by a band of supporters which regularly occupied a section of the grandstand at the club's games. The nickname first appeared in print in the local "North Melbourne Advertiser" in 1889, and ended up gaining wide use, often as the diminutive "Same Olds".


title: Essendon Football Club

text: This move away from Essendon, at a time when fans would walk to their local ground, didn't go down too 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. It was known firstly as Essendon Town and, after 1905, as Essendon (although it was often called Essendon A, with the A standing for association).


title: Essendon Football Club

text: After the 1921 season, the East Melbourne Cricket Ground was closed and demolished to expand the Flinders Street Railyard. Having played at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground from 1882 to 1921, and having won four VFA premierships (1891–1894) and four VFL premierships (1897, 1901, 1911 and 1912) whilst there, Essendon was looking for a new home. It was offered grounds at the current Royal Melbourne Showgrounds, Ascot Vale; at Victoria Park, Melbourne; at Arden St, North Melbourne; and the Essendon Cricket Ground. The Essendon City Council offered the (VFL) team the Essendon Cricket Ground, announcing that it would be prepared to spend over £12,000 ($1,009,066 in 2021 terms, according to the Retail Price Index) on improvements, including a new grandstand, scoreboard and re-fencing of the oval.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: The club's first preference was to move to North Melbourne—a move which the North Melbourne Football Club (then in the VFA) saw as an opportunity to get into the VFL. Most of Essendon's members and players were from the North Melbourne area, and sportswriters believed that Essendon would have been taken over by or rebranded as North Melbourne within only a few years of the move. However, the VFA, desperate for its own strategic reasons not to lose its use of the North Melbourne Cricket Ground, successfully appealed to the State Government to block Essendon's move to North Melbourne. With its preferred option off the table, the club returned to Essendon, and the Essendon VFA club disbanded, with most of its players moving to North Melbourne.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: The old "Same Olds" nickname fell into disuse, and by 1922 the other nicknames "Sash Wearers" and "Essendonians" that had been variously used from time to time were also abandoned. The team became universally known as "the Dons" (from EssenDON); it was not until much later, during the War years of the early 1940s, that they became known as "The Bombers" due to Windy Hill's proximity to the Essendon Aerodrome.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: In the 1922 season, playing in Essendon for the first time in decades, Essendon reached the final four for the first time since 1912, finishing in third place. In the 1923 season, the club topped the ladder with 13 wins from 16 games. After a 17-point Second Semi-Final loss to South Melbourne, Essendon defeated Fitzroy (who had beaten South Melbourne) in the 1923 Grand Final (then known as a "Challenge Final" due to its different finals format): Essendon 8.15 (63) to Fitzroy 6.10 (46). Amongst Essendon's best players were half-forward flanker George "Tich" Shorten, centre half-forward Justin McCarthy, centre half-back Tom Fitzmaurice, rover Frank Maher, and wingman Jack Garden. This was one of Essendon's most famous sides, dubbed the "Mosquito Fleet" due to the number of small, very fast players in the side. Six players were 5'6" (167 cm) or smaller.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: In the 1924 season, for the first time since their inaugural premiership in 1897, there was no ultimate match to decide the league's champion team – either "Challenge Final" or "Grand Final" – to determine the premiers; instead, the top four clubs after the home-and-away season played a round-robin to determine the premiers. Essendon, having previously defeated both Fitzroy (by 40 points) and South Melbourne (by 33 points), clinched 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 Dons were declared premiers by virtue of their superior percentage, meaning that Essendon again managed to win successive premierships. But the low gates 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.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Prominent contributors to Essendon's 1924 Premiership success included back pocket Clyde Donaldson, follower Norm Beckton, half-back flanker Roy Laing, follower Charlie May, and rover Charlie Hardy. The 1924 season was not without controversy, however, with rumours of numerous players accepting bribes. Regardless of the accuracy of these allegations, the club's image was tarnished, and the side experienced its lowest period during the decade that followed, with poor results on the field and decreased support off it.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: There was worse to follow, with various Essendon players publicly blaming each other for a poor performance against Richmond, and then, with dissension still rife in the ranks, the side plummeted to an unexpected and humiliating 28-point loss to VFA premiers Footscray in a special charity match played a week later in front of 46,100 people, in aid of Dame Nellie Melba's Limbless Soldiers' Appeal Fund, purportedly (but not officially) for the championship of Victoria.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: The club's fortunes dipped alarmingly—and persistently. Indeed, after finishing third in the 1926 season, it was to be 14 years later—in 1940—before Essendon would even contest a finals series.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: After the malaise of the late 1920s and early 1930, the 1933 season proved a turning point in morale despite no finals entries for the entire 1930s. Essendon saw the debut of the player regarded as one of the game's greatest-ever players, Dick Reynolds. His impact was immediate. He won his first Brownlow Medal aged 19. His record of three Brownlow victories (1934, 1937, 1938), equalled Fitzroy's Haydn Bunton, Sr (1931, 1932, 1935), and later equalled by Bob Skilton (1959, 1963, 1968), and Ian Stewart (1965, 1966, 1971).


title: Essendon Football Club

text: 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 somewhat modest). He was regarded as having a sound tactical knowledge of the game and being an inspirational leader, as he led the side into the finals in 1940 for the first time since 1926, 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.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: 1941 brought Essendon's first grand final appearance since 1923, but the side again lowered its colours to Melbourne. A year later war broke out and the competition was considerably weakened, with Geelong being forced to pull out of the competition due to travel restrictions as a result of petrol rationing. Attendances at games also declined dramatically, whilst some clubs had to move from their normal grounds due to them being used for military purposes. Many players were lost to football due to their military service. Nevertheless, Essendon went on to win the 1942 Premiership with Western Australian Wally Buttsworth in irrepressible form at centre half-back. Finally, the long-awaited premiership was Essendon's after comprehensively outclassing Richmond in the grand final, 19.18 (132) to 11.13 (79). The match was played at Carlton in front of 49,000 spectators.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: In any case, there could be no such reservations about Essendon's next premiership, which came just four years later. Prior to that Essendon lost a hard-fought grand final to Richmond in 1943 by 5 points, finished 3rd in 1944, and dropped to 8th in 1945.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: After World War II, Essendon enjoyed great success. In the five years immediately after the war, Essendon won 3 premierships (1946, 1949, 1950) and were runners up twice (1947, 1948). In 1946, Essendon were clearly the VFL's supreme force, topping the ladder after the home-and-away games and surviving a drawn second semi-final against Collingwood to make it through to the grand final a week later with a score of 10.16 (76) to 8.9 (57). Then, in the grand final against Melbourne, Essendon set a grand final record score of 22.18 (150) to Melbourne 13.9 (87), featuring a 7-goal performance by centre half-forward Gordon Lane. Rover Bill Hutchinson, and defenders Wally Buttsworth, Cec Ruddell and Harold Lambert were among the best players.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: The 1947 Grand Final has to go down in the ledger as 'one of the ones that got away', with Essendon losing to Carlton by a single point despite managing 30 scoring shots to 21. 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, to tie with Melbourne (who managed 10.9) in the 1948 grand final. A week later Essendon 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: "It is very apparent that no team is complete without a spearhead and your committee has high hopes of rectifying that fault this coming season."


title: Essendon Football Club

text: The 1949 season heralded the arrival on the VFL scene of John Coleman, arguably the greatest player in Essendon's history, and, in the view of some, the finest player the game has known. In his first ever appearance for the Dons, against Hawthorn in Round 1 1949, he booted 12 of his side's 18 goals to create an opening round record which was to endure for forty five years. More importantly, however, he went on to maintain the same high level of performance throughout the season, kicking precisely 100 goals for the year to become the first player to kick 100 goals in a season since Richmond's Jack Titus in 1940.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: The Coleman factor was just what Essendon needed to enable them to take that vital final step to premiership glory, but even so it was not until the business end of the season that this became clear. Essendon struggled to make the finals in 4th place, but once there they suddenly ignited to put in one of the most consistently devastating September performances in VFL history.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Collingwood succumbed first as the Dons powered their way to an 82-point first semi-final victory, and a fortnight later it was the turn of the North Melbourne Football Club as Essendon won the preliminary final a good deal more comfortably than the ultimate margin of 17 points suggested. In the grand final, Essendon were pitted against Carlton and in a match that was a total travesty as a contest they overwhelmed the Blues to the tune of 73 points, 18.17 (125) to 6.16 (52). Best for the Dons included pacy aboriginal half-back flanker Norm McDonald, ruckman Bob McLure, and rovers Bill Hutchinson and Ron McEwin. John Coleman also did well, registering 6 majors.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: A year later, in 1950, Essendon were—if anything—even more dominant, defeating the North Melbourne Football Club in both the Second Semi-Final and the Grand Final to secure consecutive VFL premierships for the third time. Best afield in the 1950 Grand Final, in what was officially his swan song as a player, was captain-coach Dick Reynolds, who received sterling support from the likes of Norm McDonald, ruckman/back pocket Wally May, back pocket Les Gardiner, and ruckman Bob McLure.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: With 'King Richard' still holding court as coach in 1951, albeit now in a non-playing capacity, Essendon seemed on course for a third consecutive flag but a controversial four-week suspension dished out to John Coleman on the eve of the finals effectively put paid to their chances. Coleman was reported for retaliation after twice being struck by his Carlton opponent, Harry Caspar, and without him the Dons were rated a 4 goals poorer team. Nevertheless, they still managed to battle their way to a 6th successive grand final with wins over Footscray by 8 points in the first semi final and Collingwood by 2 points in the preliminary final.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: The Dons sustained numerous injuries in the preliminary final, and the selectors sprang a surprise on Grand Final day by naming the officially retired Dick Reynolds as 20th man. 'King Richard' was powerless to prevent the inevitable; although leading at half-time, Geelong kicked five goals to Essendon's two points in the third quarter to set up victory by 11 points.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Essendon slumped to 8th in 1952, but Coleman was in blistering form, managing 103 goals for the year. Hugh Buggy noted in "The Argus": "It was the wettest season for twenty-two years and Coleman showed that since the war he was without peer in the art of goal kicking."


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Two seasons later, Coleman's career was ended after he dislocated a knee during the Round 8 clash with the North Melbourne Football Club at Essendon. Aged just 25, he had kicked 537 goals in only 98 VFL games in what was generally a fairly low-scoring period for the game. His meteoric rise and fall were clearly the stuff of legend, and few (if any) players, either before or since, have had such an immense impact over so brief a period.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Without Coleman, Essendon's fortunes plummeted, and there were to be no further premierships in the 1950s. The nearest miss came in 1957 when the Bombers (as they were popularly known by this time) earned premiership favouritism after a superb 16-point Second Semi-Final defeat of Melbourne—only to lose by over 10 goals against the same side a fortnight later.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: 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. However, it was to take another three years, and a change of coach, before the team's obvious potential was translated into tangible success.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: John Coleman started his coaching career at Essendon in 1961, thus ending the Dick Reynolds era at the club. In the same year, Essendon finished the season mid-table, and supporters were not expecting too much for the following season. However, the club blitzed the opposition in 1962, losing only two matches and finishing top of the table. Both losses were to the previous year's grand finalists. The finals posed no problems for the resurgent Dons, easily accounting for Carlton in the season's climax, winning the 1962 Premiership by 32 points. This was a remarkable result for Coleman, who, in just his second season of coaching, claimed the ultimate prize in Australian football. As so often is the case after a flag, the following two years were below standard. A further premiership in 1965 (won from 4th position on the ladder) was also unexpected due to periods of poor form during the 1965 season. The Bombers were a different club when the finals came around, but some of the credit for the improvement was given to the influence of Brian Sampson and Ted Fordham during the finals. Coleman's time as coach turned out to be much like his playing career: highly successful but cut short when he had to stand down due to health problems in 1967. Only six years later, on the eve of the 1973 season, he died of a heart attack at just 44 years of age.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Following Coleman's retirement, the club experienced tough times on and off the field. Finals appearances were rare for the side, which was often in contention for the wooden spoon. Essendon did manage to make the 1968 VFL Grand Final, but it lost to Carlton by just three points and did not make it back to the big stage for a 15 years.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: During the period from 1968 until 1980, five different coaches were tried, with none lasting longer than four years. Off the field, the club went through troubled times as well. In 1970, five players went on strike before the season even began, demanding higher payments. 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 did not taste finals action again until the very end of the decade. The 1970s' Essendon sides were involved in many rough and tough encounters under Tuddenham, who himself came to loggerheads with Ron Barassi at a quarter-time huddle where both coaches exchanged heated words. Essendon had tough but talented players with the likes of "Rotten Ronnie" Ron Andrews and experienced players such as Barry Davis, Ken Fletcher, Geoff Blethyn, Neville Fields and West Australian import Graham Moss. In May 1974, a controversial half-time all-in-brawl with Richmond at Windy Hill and a 1975 encounter with Carlton were testimony of the era. Following the Carlton match, the "Herald" described Windy Hill as "Boot Hill" because of the extent of the fights and the high number of reported players (eight in all—four from Carlton and four from Essendon). The peak of these incidents occurred in 1980 with new recruit Phil Carman making headlines for head-butting an umpire. The tribunal suspended him for sixteen weeks, and although most people thought this was a fair (or even lenient) sentence, he took his case to the supreme court, gathering even more unwanted publicity for the club. Despite this, the club had recruited many talented young players in the late 1970s who emerged as club greats. Three of those young players were Simon Madden, Tim Watson and Paul Van Der Haar. Terry Daniher and his brother Neale came 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. This raw but talented group of youngsters took Essendon to an elimination final in 1979 under Barry Davis but were again thrashed in an Elimination Final, this time at the hands of Fitzroy. Davis resigned at the end of the 1980 season after missing out on a finals appearance.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: 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 to 1993. Even that was bittersweet, as he quit VFL football to move back to his native Western Australia, where Moss finished out his career as a player and coach at Claremont Football Club. In many ways, Moss's career reflects Essendon's mixed fortunes during the decade.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Essendon reached the Grand Final in 1983, the first time since 1968. Hawthorn won by a then record 83 points.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: In 1984, Essendon won the pre-season competition and completed the regular season on top of the ladder. The club played, and beat, Hawthorn in the 1984 VFL Grand Final to win their 13th premiership—their first since 1965. The teams met again in the 1985 Grand Final, which Essendon also won. 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 July 1987, the Bombers suffered a humiliation at the hands of Sydney, who fell two points short of scoring the then highest score in VFL history.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: In 1988, Essendon made a rebound to sixth place with twelve wins, including a 140-point thrashing of Brisbane where they had a record sixteen individual goalkickers. In 1989, they rebounded further to second on the ladder with only five losses and thrashed Geelong in the Qualifying Final. However, after a fiery encounter with Hawthorn ended in a convincing defeat, the Bombers were no match for Geelong next week.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: In 1990, Essendon were pace-setters almost from the start, but a disruption from the Qualifying Final draw between Collingwood and West Coast was a blow from which they never recovered. The Magpies comprehensively thrashed them in both the second semi final and the grand final.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Following the 1991 season, Essendon moved its home games from its traditional home ground at Windy Hill to the larger and newly renovated MCG. This move generated large increases in game attendance, membership and revenue for the club. The club's training and administrative base remained at Windy Hill until 2013.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Following the retirement of Tim Watson and Simon Madden in the early 1990s, the team was built on new players such as Gavin Wanganeen, Joe Misiti, Mark Mercuri, Michael Long, Dustin Fletcher (son of Ken) and James Hird, who was taken at No. 79 in the 1990 draft. This side became known as the "Baby Bombers", as the core of the side was made up of young players early in their careers.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: The team won the 1993 Grand Final against Carlton and that same year, Gavin Wanganeen won the Brownlow Medal, the first awarded to an Essendon player since 1976. Three years later, James Hird was jointly awarded the medal with Michael Voss of Brisbane.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: In 2000, the club shifted the majority of its home games to the newly opened Docklands Stadium, signing a 25-year deal to play seven home matches per year at the venue, with the other four remaining at the MCG. The season was one of the most successful by any team in VFL/AFL history, and the club opened with 20 consecutive wins before they lost to the Western Bulldogs in round 21. The team went on to win their 16th premiership, defeating , thereby completing the most dominant single season in AFL/VFL history. The defeat to the Bulldogs was the only defeat for Essendon throughout the entire calendar year (Essendon also won the 2000 pre-season competition).


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Essendon was less successful after 2001. Lucrative contracts to a number of premiership players had caused serious pressure on the club's salary cap, forcing the club to trade several key players. Blake Caracella, Chris Heffernan, Justin Blumfield, Gary Moorcroft and Damien Hardwick had all departed by the end of 2002; in 2004, Mark Mercuri, Sean Wellman and Joe Misiti retired. The club remained competitive; however, they could progress no further than the second week of the finals each year for the years of 2002, 2003, and 2004. Sheedy signed a new three-year contract at the end of 2004.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: In 2005, Essendon missed the finals for the first time since 1997; and in 2006, the club suffered its worst season under Sheedy, and its worst for more than 70 years, finishing second-last with only three wins (one of which was against defending premiers , in which newly appointed captain Matthew Lloyd kicked eight goals) and one draw from twenty-two games. Lloyd had replaced James Hird as captain at the start of the season, but after suffering a season-ending hamstring injury two weeks after his phenomenal performance against Leo Barry, David Hille was appointed captain for the remainder of the season. The club improved its on-field position in 2007 but again missed the finals.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Sheedy's contract was not renewed after 2007, ending his 27-year tenure as Essendon coach. Matthew Knights replaced Sheedy as coach, and coached the club for three seasons, reaching the finals once—an eighth-place finish in 2009 at the expense of reigning premiers . On 29 August 2010, shortly after the end of the 2010 home-and-away season, Knights was dismissed as coach.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: On 28 September 2010, former captain James Hird was named as Essendon's new coach from 2011 on a four-year deal. Former dual premiership winning coach and Essendon triple-premiership winning player Mark Thompson later joined Hird on the coaching panel. In his first season, Essendon finished eighth. The club started strongly in 2012, sitting fourth with a 10–3 record at the halfway mark of the season; but the club won only one more match for the season, finishing eleventh to miss the finals.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: In 2013 the club moved its training and administrative base to The Hangar, a new facility in the suburb of Melbourne Airport which it had developed in conjunction with the Australian Paralympic Committee. Essendon holds a 37-year lease at the facility, and maintains a lease at Windy Hill to use the venue for home matches for its reserves team in the Victorian Football League, and for a social club and merchandise store on the site.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: During 2013, the club was investigated by the AFL and the Australian Sports Anti-Doping Authority (ASADA) over its 2012 player supplements and sports science program, most specifically over allegations into illegal use of peptide supplements. An internal review found it to have "established a supplements program that was experimental, inappropriate and inadequately vetted and controlled", and on 27 August 2013, the club was found guilty of bringing the game into disrepute for this reason. Among its penalties, the club was fined A$2 million, stripped of early draft picks in the following two drafts, and forfeited its place in the 2013 finals series (having originally finished seventh on the ladder); Hird was suspended from coaching for twelve months. Several office-bearers also resigned their posts during the controversy, including chairman David Evans and CEO Ian Robson.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: In the midst of the supplements saga, assistant coach Mark Thompson took over as coach for the 2014 season during Hird's suspension. He led the club back to the finals for a seventh-place finish but in a tense second elimination final against archrivals North Melbourne, the Bombers led by as much as 27 points at half time before a resurgent Kangaroos side came back and won the game by 12 points. After the 2014 season, Mark Thompson left the club to make way for Hird's return to the senior coaching role.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: In June 2014, thirty-four players were issued show-cause notices alleging the use of banned peptide Thymosin beta-4 during the program. The players faced the AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal over the 2014/15 offseason, and on 31 March 2015 the tribunal returned a not guilty verdict, determining that it was "not comfortably satisfied" that the players had been administered the peptide.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Hird returned as senior coach for the 2015 season, and after a strong start, the club's form severely declined after the announcement that WADA would appeal the decision of the AFL Anti-Doping Tribunal. The effect of the appeal on the team's morale was devastating and they went on to win only six games for the year. Under extreme pressure, Hird resigned on 18 August 2015 following a disastrous 112-point loss to Adelaide. Former West Coast Eagles premiership coach John Worsfold was appointed as the new senior coach on a three-year contract.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: On 12 January 2016 the Court of Arbitration for Sport overruled the AFL anti-doping tribunal's decision, deeming that 34 past and present players of the Essendon Football Club, took the banned substance Thymosin Beta-4. As a result, all 34 players, 12 of which were still at the club, were given two-year suspensions. However, all suspensions were effectively less due to players having previously taken part in provisional suspensions undertaken during the 2014/2015 off-season.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: As a result, Essendon contested the 2016 season with twelve of its regular senior players under suspension. In order for the club to remain competitive, the AFL granted Essendon the ability to upgrade all five of their rookie listed players and to sign an additional ten players to cover the loss of the suspended players for the season.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Due to this unprecedented situation, many in the football community predicted the club would go through the 2016 AFL season without a win; however, they were able to win three matches: against , and in rounds 2, 21 and 23 respectively. The absence of its most experienced players also allowed the development of its young players, with Zach Merrett and Orazio Fantasia having breakout years, while Darcy Parish and Anthony McDonald-Tipungwuti, impressing in their debut seasons. Merrett acted as captain in the side's round 21 win over the Suns. The club eventually finished on the bottom of the ladder and thus claimed its first wooden spoon since 1933.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Essendon made their final financial settlement related to the supplements saga in September 2017, just before finals started. They also improved vastly on their 2016 performance, finishing 7th in the home and away season and becoming the first team since in 2011 to go from wooden spooner to a finals appearance, but they ultimately lost their only final to .


title: Essendon Football Club

text: The 2017 season was also capped off by the retirement of much-loved club legend and ex-captain Jobe Watson, midfielder Brent Stanton, and ex-Geelong star James Kelly, who later took up a development coach role at the club. Midfielder Heath Hocking, who played 126 games for the club, was delisted.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Expectations were high for the 2018 season, with the club having an outstanding offseason. The recruitment of Jake Stringer, Adam Saad and Devon Smith from the Western Bulldogs, Gold Coast Suns and Greater Western Sydney Giants respectively was expected to throw Essendon firmly into premiership contention.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: After beating the previous year's runner up (which went on to beat reigning premiers the following round) in round one, Essendon's form slumped severely, only winning one game out of the next seven rounds and losing to the then-winless Carlton in round eight. Senior assistant coach Mark Neeld was sacked by the club the following Monday.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: The team's form improved sharply after this, recording wins against top eight sides Geelong, GWS, eventual premiers West Coast and Sydney, and winning ten out of the last 13 games of the season. However, the mid-season revival was short-lived, with a loss to reigning premiers by eight points in round 22 ending any hopes they had of reaching the finals.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: The 2018 season was capped off by the club not offering veteran Brendon Goddard a new contract for 2019.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Essendon acquired Dylan Shiel from in one of the most high-profile trades of the 2018 AFL Trade Period. The Bombers had inconsistent form throughout the 2019 season but qualified for the finals for the second time in three seasons, finishing eighth on the ladder with 12 wins and 10 losses. The Bombers, however, were no match for the West Coast Eagles in the first elimination final and lost by 55 points to end their season. The defeat extended their 15-year finals winning drought, having not won a final since 2004.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Following the end of the 2019 season, assistant coach Ben Rutten was announced as John Worsfold's successor as senior coach, effective at the end of the 2020 AFL season. Rutten effectively shared co-coaching duties with Worsfold during the 2020 season.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: 2020 was a particularly disappointing year for the club. The Bombers failed to make the finals, finishing thirteenth on the AFL ladder with just six wins and a draw from 17 games. Conor McKenna became the first AFL player to test positive to COVID-19 during the pandemic.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: With Rutten solely at the helm in 2021, Essendon improved significantly from the previous year and returned to the finals, finishing eighth on the ladder with 11 wins and 11 losses, and despite having beaten the Western Bulldogs towards the end of the regular season, the Bombers would lose to the same team by 49 points in the first elimination final.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: 2022 was the clubs 150th year anniversary, and hopes were high, with some even predicting Essendon to break their 21 year premiership drought. However, these predictions proved drastically wrong as the Bombers went on to finish 15th, winning only 7 games with a percentage of 83.2%. This poor performance placed Rutten's position under scrutiny, and after a late attempt to lure former Hawthorn coach Alastair Clarkson failed, Rutten was unceremoniously sacked. He was replaced by former AFL General Manager of Football and North Melbourne coach Brad Scott. As a result of the 2022 season's turmoil, board members such as former CEO Xavier Campbell, former president Paul Brasher, former player Simon Madden, and Peter Allen left their roles. Campbell was replaced by Andrew Thorburn, who was resigned after only one day in the role due to his involvement with the conservative City on the Hill Church Movement.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Essendon's first recorded jumpers were navy blue (The Footballers, edited by Thomas Power, 1875) although the club wore 'red and black caps and hose'. In 1877 The Footballers records the addition of 'a red sash over left shoulder'. This is the first time a red sash as part of the club jumper and by 1878 there are newspaper reports referring to Essendon players as 'the men in the sash'.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Given that blue and navy blue were the most popular colours at the time it is thought that Essendon adopted a red sash in 1877 to distinguish its players from others in similar coloured jumpers.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: In 2007, the AFL Commission laid down the requirement that all clubs must produce an alternative jumper for use in matches where jumpers are considered to clash. From 2007 to 2011, the Essendon clash guernsey was the same design as its home guernsey, but with a substantially wider sash such that the guernsey was predominantly red rather than predominantly black. This was changed after 2011 when the AFL deemed that the wider sash did not provide sufficient contrast.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: From 2012 to 2016, Essendon's clash guernsey was predominantly grey, with a red sash fimbriated in black; the grey field contained, in small print, the names of all Essendon premiership players.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Before the 2016 season, Essendon's changed their clash guernsey to a predominantly red one, featuring a red sash in black. Similar to the grey jumper, the names of Essendon premiership players were also printed outside the sash.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Following Adam Ramanauskas' personal battle with cancer, a "Clash for Cancer" match against was launched in 2006. This was a joint venture between Essendon and the Cancer Council of Victoria to raise funds for the organisation. Despite a formal request to the AFL being denied, players wore yellow armbands for the match which resulted in the club being fined $20,000. In 2007, the AFL agreed to allow yellow armbands to be incorporated into the left sleeve of the jumper. The 'Clash for Cancer' match against Melbourne has become an annual event, repeated in subsequent seasons, though in 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2016, (twice), the Sydney Swans and Brisbane Lions were the opponents in those respective seasons instead of Melbourne. In 2009, the jumpers were auctioned along with yellow boots worn by some players during the match.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: The club's theme song, "See the Bombers Fly Up", is thought to have been written c. 1959 by Kevin Andrews in the home of player Jeff Gamble at which time Kevin Andrews was living. The song is based on the tune of Johnnie Hamp's 1929 song "(Keep Your) Sunny Side Up" at an increased tempo. Jeff Gamble came up with the line 'See the bombers fly up, up' while Kevin Andrews contributed all or most of the rest. At the time, "(Keep Your) Sunny Side Up" was the theme song for the popular Melbourne-based TV show on Channel 7 "Sunnyside Up". The official version of the song was recorded in 1972 by the Fable Singers and is still used today.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: The song, as with all other AFL clubs, is played prior to every match and at the conclusion of matches when the team is victorious.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Songwriter Mike Brady, of "Up There Cazaly" fame, penned an updated version of the song in 1999 complete with a new verse arrangement, but it was not well received. However, this version is occasionally played at club functions. In 2018, Andrews revealed that there was an error in the lyrics, in which in the line "The other teams they don't fear", the word "they" was supposed to be "we".


title: Essendon Football Club

text: The club's current logo was introduced in 1998, making it the second oldest AFL logo currently in use, behind St. Kilda's logo, which was introduced in 1995.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Their mascot is known as "Skeeta Reynolds", and was named after Dick Reynolds. He is a mosquito and was created in honour of the team's back-to-back premiership sides in the 1920s known as the "Mosquito Fleet". He was first named through a competition run in the Bomber magazine with "Skeeta" being the winning entry. This was later changed to "Skeeta Reynolds". He appears as a red mosquito in an Essendon jumper and wears a red and black scarf.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: The Essendon Football Club primary training and administration base has been at The Hangar since 2013. prior to this, the primary training and administration base of Essendon Football Club was based at Windy Hill Oval from 1922 until 2013. prior to this, the home ground of Essendon Football Club was at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground from 1882 until 1921.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Essendon's biggest rivals are , , and , as these teams and Essendon are the four biggest and most supported clubs in Victoria. Matches between the clubs are often close regardless of form and ladder positions. If out of the race themselves, all four have the desire to deny the others a finals spot or a premiership. Essendon also has a fierce rivalry with Hawthorn, stemming from excessive on-field violence in the 1980s, perhaps reaching its zenith with the infamous Line in the Sand Match in 2004. Additionally, Essendon has a three-decade rivalry with the West Coast Eagles.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Essendon's board members are David Barham, Andrew Welsh, Melissa Verner Green, Dorothy Hisgrove, Andrew Muir, Kate O'Sullivan, and Kevin Sheedy AO.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: The club's apparel is currently produced by Under Armour. The club's apparel has also been produced by Reebok, Fila, Puma, Adidas and ISC.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: To celebrate the 125th anniversary of the club, as well as 100 years of the VFL/AFL, Essendon announced its "Team of the Century" in 1997.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: For the 2022 season, in the event an AFL club has less than 28 players available due to COVID-19, each club can select from a list of 20 state league players who can be called up to AFL level.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: The Essendon reserves team first competed in the Victorian Football League's reserves competition when the competition was established in 1919. The team enjoyed success in the form of eight premierships between 1919 and 1999, including the last Victorian State Football League year in 1999. From 2000 until 2002, the club's reserves team competed in the new Victorian Football League competition.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: At the end of 2002, the club dissolved its reserves team and established a reserves affiliation with the Bendigo Football Club in the VFL. The affiliation ran for ten years from 2003 until 2012, allowing reserves players from the Essendon list to play with Bendigo.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: The club re-established its reserves team in 2013, seeking greater developmental autonomy. The reserves team has since competed in the VFL. The team plays its home games at Windy Hill. The team is made up of senior-listed AFL players and VFL-contracted players.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Essendon fielded a team in the AFL Women's (AFLW) competition from its seventh season. In March 2022, former AFLW player and Essendon VFLW captain Georgia Nanscawen was announced as the club's first AFLW player signing, and AFLW assistant coach Natalie Wood was announced as the club's first AFLW coach a week later. The club's AFLW coaching panel was finalised in late June.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: Essendon has fielded a team in the VFL Women's (VFLW) competition since the 2018 season. The league is the highest-grade competition for female footballers in Victoria and one of three second-tier female competitions underneath the national AFL Women's.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: In December 2017, Essendon entered e-sports by acquiring Australian "League of Legends" team Abyss ESports. This made them the second AFL team to acquire an e-sports division after Adelaide acquired Legacy ESports in May.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: On 2 December 2019, it was announced that the Bombers' OPL slot had been sold to Perth-based internet provider Pentanet, marking Essendon's exit from the e-sports arena.


title: Essendon Football Club

text: In 2018, the Essendon Football Club, along with four other AFL clubs, entered the Victorian Wheelchair Football League.


title: Mark Speight

text: Mark Warwick Fordham Speight (6 August 1965 – 7 April 2008) was an English television presenter and host of children's art programme "SMart". Speight was born in Seisdon, Staffordshire, and left school at 16 to become a cartoonist. He took a degree in commercial and graphic art and, while working in television set construction, heard of auditions for a new children's art programme. Speight was successful in his audition and became one of the first presenters of "SMart", working on it for 14 years.


title: Mark Speight

text: Speight was also a presenter on "See It Saw It", where he met his future fiancée, actress and model Natasha Collins. He took part in live events, such as "Rolf on Art" and his own "Speight of the Art" workshops for children. He was involved in charity work; he became the president of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign's Young Pavement Artists Competition, and was a spokesperson for ChildLine.


title: Mark Speight

text: In January 2008, Speight found Collins's body in the bath of their shared London flat. He was arrested on suspicion of her murder, but not charged with any offence. An inquest later determined that Collins had died of a drug overdose and severe burns from hot water, and it was death by misadventure. In April that year, Speight was reported missing and was later discovered to have hanged himself near Paddington station. Two suicide notes were discovered, describing how he could no longer live his life without Collins.


title: Mark Speight

text: Speight was born in Seisdon, Staffordshire. He grew up in the village of Tettenhall, Wolverhampton and had two siblings, Tina-Louise Richmond (née Speight), and Jason Speight. His father, Oliver Warwick Speight, is a property developer, and his mother, Jacqueline Fordham Speight (née Parker), was an art teacher. Jacqueline died on 5 September 2008, aged 62. Speight attended the independent school Tettenhall College for a year, before moving to state comprehensive Regis School, now known as King's C.E. School, also in Tettenhall, at the age of 12. Speight stated in an interview he was a slow learner at school, with a short attention span, and art was a way for him to communicate. He said he did "very badly" because he was a victim of bullying, and the "daily ordeal for two years" forced him to become the "class joker". Speight left aged 16 and went on to attend Bilston Art School, where he took a degree in commercial and graphic art.


title: Mark Speight

text: Speight intended to become a cartoonist, but he eventually became a TV presenter following a job painting the set of a television production. He auditioned for "SMart" and, following a successful interview where he met future co-presenter Jay Burridge, he went on to present "SMart" from its first edition in 1994. Speight became close friends with Burridge, whose art studio in West London was used to create all of the art content for "SMart"; Burridge noted: "We would bounce ideas and jokes off each other all day until we had developed an almost telepathically linked knowledge of what made each other laugh." Speight and Burridge were joined by third presenter Zoe Ball, who was replaced first by Josie d'Arby, and then Kirsten O'Brien and Lizi Botham. With Burridge, O'Brien and Botham, Speight presented the spin-off shows "SMart on the Road", "SMarteenies", and various live events. He starred in the BAFTA-nominated ITV Saturday morning show "Scratchy & Co." from 1995 until 1998.


title: Mark Speight

text: Speight's other work ranged from children's television to adult factual programmes. His children's television credits include playing the "Abominable No Man" in Timmy Mallett's "Timmy Towers" and presenting "Beat the Cyborgs", "Name That Toon", "On Your Marks", "Insides Out", and "History Busters", the last of which won a Royal Television Society Award. Speight also worked on "This Morning", "The Heaven and Earth Show", "The Big Breakfast" and was a contestant on ITV's "Gladiators" and "Celebrity Wrestling". Speight also played the king on children's programme "See It Saw It", where he met Natasha Collins. Collins was seriously injured after being hit by a car in 2001, and had to leave "See It Saw It". Speight began dating her in 2003, and they became engaged in Barbados in 2005. They planned to get married in fancy dress and Speight joked that the wedding might feature monkeys, his favourite animal.


title: Mark Speight

text: In 2004, Speight participated in Rolf Harris's "Rolf on Art", for which a giant reproduction of John Constable's "The Hay Wain" was created in Trafalgar Square. In 2005, he was involved in a similar project where Hans Holbein's portrait of Henry VIII and Leonardo da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" were both reconstructed, the latter in the grounds of Edinburgh Castle. Speight had planned a project involving a trip to Borneo in March 2008 to train abused orangutans not to fight each other, but this never took place. Speight regularly toured with "Speight of the Art", a series of art workshops he ran for children, and during the Christmas period, he performed in pantomime as "Buttons" in "Cinderella" at the Watersmeet, Rickmansworth, in December 2007.


title: Mark Speight

text: Speight was involved in charity work. He was President of the Muscular Dystrophy Campaign's Young Pavement Artists Competition, originally a one-off, year-long project that ended up lasting eight years, and he was a spokesperson for ChildLine. In 2007 he was the presenter of the Müller Big Art Project for Comic Relief in Trafalgar Square.


title: Mark Speight

text: On the afternoon of 3 January 2008, Speight called emergency services after waking up to discover Natasha Collins's body in the bath at their St John's Wood flat, in north-west London. Speight told police that he and Collins had spent the previous evening "partying", drinking wine and vodka, and taking cocaine and sleeping pills. Speight was questioned by police and was subsequently arrested on suspicion of murder and of supplying Class A drugs, but was released on bail until the first week of February. Because of this, the BBC cancelled the Saturday repeat edition of "SMart". An inquest, which opened on 8 January 2008, heard that the death was not thought to be suspicious but should be "subject to further investigation". At that point, police were awaiting results of toxicology tests after a postmortem examination was inconclusive. The BBC cancelled repeat broadcasts of "SMart" and "SMarteenies" until further notice, and on 28 February Speight announced he was quitting the show, because the "tragic loss" of Collins had left him unable to continue. Speight denied any involvement with Collins's death, and on 19 March it was reported that the police were no longer considering him a suspect.


title: Mark Speight

text: In April 2008, the coroner recorded a verdict of death by misadventure in relation to Collins. The cause of death was "cocaine toxicity and immersion in hot water", according to the consultant pathologist. The inquest found that she had taken "very significant" amounts of cocaine with sleeping pills and vodka, and that she had suffered 60% burns to her body, including her tongue. The coroner noted that at some stage in the night after both Speight and Collins had gone to bed, Collins got up to have a bath. He said that it was "more likely than not" that a heart problem had caused Collins to fall unconscious while the hot tap was running. Following Collins's death, Speight moved in with Collins's mother.


title: Mark Speight

text: Speight planned to meet with Collins's mother at Covent Garden for coffee on the afternoon of 7 April. He was dropped off at Wood Green tube station that morning, but never appeared at the planned meeting. Speight missed an appointment with a counsellor, but this was because of confusion over dates. Two police officers spoke to him, as he appeared "vacant", "distracted" and "deep in thought", but he refused their help. He was captured on CCTV in the afternoon taking money from a cash machine at Queen's Park station, and he subsequently boarded a southbound Bakerloo line train. He was reported missing the following day by family and friends, and his mother and the mother of Natasha Collins made a public appeal in which they urged him to make contact. Speight's father also appealed for him to get in touch.


title: Mark Speight

text: On 13 April 2008, Speight's body was discovered hanging from the roof of MacMillan House, adjacent to London's Paddington Station, hidden from public view. The discovery was made by railway workers at 10:00 am, and British Transport Police confirmed that the body was Speight's on 14 April 2008. An inquest into his death opened on 16 April 2008, and a post-mortem confirmed the cause of death as hanging. It was then adjourned until 20 May. The police said Speight may have used a sixth floor fire exit to get to the area where he was found.


title: Mark Speight

text: The report of Speight's death on the BBC's children's news programme "Newsround" provoked complaints that it upset young viewers, even though the programme had avoided use of the word "suicide" and had instead reported that "police don't think he was killed by anyone else."


title: Mark Speight

text: Speight's funeral was held on 28 April at St Michael and All Angels' Church in Tettenhall and hundreds went to pay their respects. The service included a performance by the choir from Tettenhall College, Speight's former school, and his coffin was carried out of the church accompanied by the theme tune of "SMart". He was later cremated and his ashes were interred in Tettenhall. In May, the inquest resumed and determined that Speight was deeply depressed by his fiancée's death. It was also disclosed that suicide notes had been found, one in his left pocket, and one addressed to his parents in his diary at his home. The notes described how he could not "contemplate life without [Collins]". The coroner, Paul Knapman, said there were no suspicious circumstances surrounding the death. In May 2008, Speight's father created a foundation, Speight of the Art, or SP8 of the Art and launched it at a memorial service that took place on what would have been his 43rd birthday, 6 August 2008, at St Paul's Church in Covent Garden, London.


title: Simone Battle

text: Simone Sherise Battle (June 17, 1989 – September 5, 2014) was an American singer. She was a finalist on "The X Factor" in 2011 and a member of the girl group G.R.L. from 2012 until her death in 2014. The group was best known for their singles "Vacation", "Ugly Heart" and "Wild Wild Love" with Pitbull. Following her death, the group dedicated their single "Lighthouse" to Battle.


title: Simone Battle

text: Outside of her music work, she starred in several music videos and the film "We the Party" (2012) alongside Snoop Dogg.


title: Simone Battle

text: Battle made her television debut in 2006, having small roles on shows including "Zoey 101" and "Everybody Hates Chris". In 2008, Battle was featured as the main character in the Mary Mary music video "Get Up". Battle also appeared as a background dancer in the Cali Swag District music video "Teach Me How to Dougie" in 2010.


title: Simone Battle

text: In 2011, Battle auditioned for the American singing competition "The X Factor" in front of judges Simon Cowell, Paula Abdul, Cheryl and L.A. Reid. Battle sang "When I Grow Up" by The Pussycat Dolls. After receiving three yeses from the judges, Battle had made it through to Bootcamp. She was mentored by Cowell after becoming one of the Top 32 finalists in the girls category. Battle chose to be part of the live shows with Melanie Amaro, Rachel Crow, Drew, and Tiah Tolliver. After making it to the top 17, Battle and Tolliver were eliminated from the girls category during the first week by Cowell. He had also noted Battle as being one of his favorite contestants that he has mentored.


title: Simone Battle

text: In 2012, Battle starred opposite Mandela Van Peebles, Moisés Arias, and Snoop Dogg in her film debut "We the Party". The film received mixed to positive reviews from critics. We the Party was Battle's first and final full-length film. In 2012, Battle played Olivia in the short film "Meanamorphosis". The film was released on April 27, 2012.


title: Simone Battle

text: Upon Steve Jones' announcement that she had been eliminated from the competition, Battle promoted the online release of her debut music video "He Likes Boys".


title: Simone Battle

text: In August 2012, Battle was initially part of The Pussycat Dolls' proposed new lineup after their past members disbanded in 2010. Her addition to the group was announced during the opening of the Pussycat Dolls Dollhouse at the Keating Hotel in San Diego, California. Antin later announced in February 2013 that they would continue instead as the "next generation" of the Dolls as a group called G.R.L.


title: Simone Battle

text: Battle was found dead on September 5, 2014, at the age of 25. The cause of death was ruled as suicide. A spokesperson for Battle stated that she suffered from depression due to financial issues.


title: Simone Battle

text: Simone's death led to a wide amount of media coverage and responses from fellow entertainers, co-workers, fans, and friends on social media. Many of Battle's co-workers and fellow entertainers including Robin Antin, Nicole Scherzinger, Simon Cowell, Pitbull, Cirkut, Dr. Luke, Mel B, Cheryl, and fellow G.R.L. members Natasha Slayton, Emmalyn Estrada and Lauren Bennett paid tribute to Battle by writing about her on their social media. The hashtag #RIPSimone was commonly used in posts about her, which trended worldwide on Twitter, as well as "Simone Battle".


title: Simone Battle

text: Battle's band G.R.L. released the single "Lighthouse" as a tribute to Battle. The music video features clips and photos of Battle throughout her life.


title: Simone Battle

text: Battle released four singles and one music video as a solo artist and released one extended play, two singles (including one as a featured artist), two promotional singles, and three music videos with G.R.L.


title: Brian Griese

text: Brian David Griese ( ; born March 18, 1975) is an American football coach and former quarterback who is the quarterbacks coach for the San Francisco 49ers of the National Football League (NFL). He was drafted by the Denver Broncos in the third round of the 1998 NFL Draft. He played high school football at Christopher Columbus High School and later college football at Michigan.


title: Brian Griese

text: Griese played three seasons at Michigan, leading the Wolverines to the 1997 National Championship (as recognized by the Associated Press). After being selected in the third round by the Denver Broncos in the 1998 NFL Draft, he earned a Super Bowl ring with the Broncos in his rookie season, as a backup to John Elway in Super Bowl XXXIII. Elway retired after the Super Bowl and Griese became the starting quarterback for the Broncos during the 1999 season. Griese was a Pro Bowl selection with the Broncos in 2000. After leaving the Broncos he started at quarterback for the Miami Dolphins (5 games in 2003), Chicago Bears (13 games in 2006 and 2007) and Tampa Bay Buccaneers (21 games in 2004, 2005, 2008). He is the son of Hall of Fame quarterback Bob Griese. Griese is a former color commentator for "Monday Night Football" on ESPN.


title: Brian Griese

text: Griese was born in Miami, Florida and attended Christopher Columbus High School in Miami, playing football, basketball and golf. Brian is the son of former NFL Quarterback Bob Griese.


title: Brian Griese

text: Griese played college football at the University of Michigan from 1993 to 1997. Michigan did not offer him a scholarship, so he walked on to the football team. He turned down scholarship offers from Purdue (his father's "alma mater") and Kentucky. After he was redshirted in 1993 and limited to placeholding duties in 1994, Griese took over as the starting quarterback after Scott Dreisbach was injured five games into the 1995 season. Griese started for the remainder of the 1995 season, capped by an upset of #2 ranked Ohio State, 31–23.


title: Brian Griese

text: At the beginning of the 1996 season, Dreisbach regained his starting job and Griese returned to the bench, serving as the team's pooch punter. However, after Dreisbach struggled, Griese replaced him at halftime against Ohio State, where he led the Wolverines to another upset victory over the Buckeyes, 13–9. Griese finished the season starting in a 17–14 loss to Alabama in the Outback Bowl.


title: Brian Griese

text: In 1997, Griese remained the starter. Along with Heisman Trophy winner Charles Woodson, he led the Wolverines to an undefeated season and a share of the national championship. Griese was selected as the MVP of the 1998 Rose Bowl, passing for 251 yards and three touchdowns in Michigan's win over Washington State.


title: Brian Griese

text: In his Michigan career, Griese had a 17–5 record as a starter. The Wolverines won all three games against Ohio State in which he quarterbacked. He was inducted into the Rose Bowl Hall of Fame on December 30, 2012.


title: Brian Griese

text: The Denver Broncos selected Griese in the third round of the 1998 NFL Draft. He began his career as a third-string back up to Bubby Brister and John Elway. He became a Super Bowl champion in 1998, though he spent most of the season on the sidelines. Following Elway's retirement in 1999, Griese became the Broncos' starting quarterback. Griese earned a 75.6 passer rating during his first season as starter, but improved the next year, raising it to 102.9. His efforts merited him an invite to the 2000 Pro Bowl.


title: Brian Griese

text: Griese consistently completed a high percentage of his passes. He has had four seasons with a better than 64% completion rate, including one year (2004) when he completed 69.3% of his passes. Nevertheless, he was unable to establish himself as one of the elite quarterbacks of the league, due to injuries and a penchant for interceptions. He was released by the Broncos, following the 2002 season, and was replaced by former Cardinals starter Jake Plummer.


title: Brian Griese

text: In June 2003 he signed with the Miami Dolphins. His stint with the Dolphins, where his father Bob Griese played his entire 14-year career, was brief, being released in February 2004. Griese was given the starting job when the Dolphins starting quarterback Jay Fiedler got injured. Griese had an excellent start as a Dolphin, passing for 3 touchdowns and 0 interceptions in a blowout victory against San Diego.


title: Brian Griese

text: Griese signed with and performed well for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers, and provided a catalyst for the jumpstart of the Tampa offense. Griese helped them to their only victories in 2004 with a 97.5 QB rating and to a 5–1 record in 2005 before succumbing to a torn ACL. Griese was cut by the Buccaneers in 2006 after the injury to his knee in order to free up money for the salary cap.


title: Brian Griese

text: After signing with the Bears, Griese saw limited action. Though he fared better than Rex Grossman during the 2006 preseason, coach Lovie Smith decided to keep Griese as the Bears’ second-string quarterback. He took late fourth quarter snaps at the end of major victories. Though Grossman started every Bears game in the 2006 season, Smith allowed Griese some extended gametime during week fifteen, after the Bears had clinched home-field advantage throughout the playoffs. In a game against the Detroit Lions, Griese completed six of nine passes for 51 yards, which set up several game-winning Robbie Gould field goals. Smith called on Griese to relieve a struggling Grossman for the second half of the final regular season game against the Green Bay Packers. However, Griese did not fare a lot better, completing 5 of 15 passes for 124 yards, one touchdown and two interceptions. While some Chicagoans questioned Grossman's ability to lead the Bears to the Super Bowl, Smith stood by Grossman, and declared him the team's starter throughout the playoffs. The Bears went on to win the 2006 NFC Championship, but lost Super Bowl XLI to the Indianapolis Colts.


title: Brian Griese

text: After Grossman struggled during the first three outings of the 2007 Chicago Bears season, Smith turned to Griese to lead the team. In his first outing as a Bears starter, Griese threw two touchdowns and three interceptions in a losing effort against the Detroit Lions.


title: Brian Griese

text: The next week, he led the Bears on a game-winning drive against the Philadelphia Eagles, in which he called the plays due to a headset failure. Griese lost the starting job to Grossman after sustaining an injury against the Oakland Raiders during week ten. Griese again replaced Grossman later in the season, after Grossman sustained a knee injury against the Washington Redskins. However, with the Bears out of the playoffs, Kyle Orton started the remaining 3 games of the season.


title: Brian Griese

text: On March 3, 2008, Griese was traded to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers in exchange for a sixth round pick in the 2009 draft. He started the second game of the season, a home game against the Atlanta Falcons, which the Buccaneers won 24–9. Griese completed 18 of 31 passes, throwing for 160 yards with one touchdown. The next week, Griese played his old team, the Chicago Bears, and despite throwing 3 interceptions, he threw for 407 yards and 2 touchdowns to help the Buccaneers beat the Chicago Bears 27–24 in overtime. He also started the following week, and again despite throwing 3 interceptions, he completed 15 of 30 passes for 149 yards, 1 touchdown, and lead the Bucs to a victory over the Green Bay Packers 30–21. Griese started against the Atlanta Falcons again on December 14, 2008, subbing for Jeff Garcia who was sidelined with a calf injury. He completed 26 of 37 passes for 269 yards and threw 1 touchdown. But Griese also threw an interception and was sacked four times. The Bucs ended up losing the game in overtime 13–10. His career starting for Tampa Bay was 8–2. He was released on July 13, 2009. After his release, Griese decided to retire from football.


title: Brian Griese

text: Since 2009, Griese has been employed by ESPN, working until 2020 as an analyst on the network's college football coverage. Griese also served as radio color commentator for 850 KOA (AM)'s coverage of Denver Broncos' football for the 2010 and 2011 seasons.


title: Brian Griese

text: In 2020, Griese joined the booth for "Monday Night Football", working alongside Steve Levy and Louis Riddick.


title: Brian Griese

text: On March 4, 2022, it was announced Griese was leaving "Monday Night Football" to become the quarterbacks coach for the San Francisco 49ers, replacing Rich Scangarello, who left to become the offensive coordinator & quarterbacks coach at Kentucky. He played quarterback for the Tampa Bay Buccaneers from 2004 to 2005 when 49ers head coach Kyle Shanahan was an offensive quality control coach, while also being drafted by Shanahan's father Mike Shanahan while Head Coach of the Denver Broncos.


title: Brian Griese

text: Griese was a member of the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity and received his bachelor's degree in an individualized concentration from Michigan in 1997.


title: Brian Griese

text: Griese is founder and board president of Judi's House, a children's grief support center in Denver, Colorado. Brian's mother, Judi Griese, succumbed to breast cancer when Brian was 12. The grieving process was hard for Brian, and so he established Judi's House to serve grieving children in the Denver area.


title: Brian Griese

text: He also helped establish what would become the Griese, Hutchinson and Woodson Champions for Children's Hearts golf weekend in May 2007. The event benefited the capital campaign for construction of the C.S. Mott Children's Hospital as well as the Michigan Congenital Heart Center (MCHC) which resides within Mott. He also remains involved with the From the Heart Organization, a relationship that dates back to his playing days in Ann Arbor when he would visit Mott every week.


title: Brian Griese

text: For his work with Judi's House, Griese was awarded the 2011 Patterson Award for Excellence in Sports Philanthropy, presented each year by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation, which celebrates and promotes the selfless service of people within the world of sports. He was named the recipient of the Big Ten's Dungy-Thompson Humanitarian Award in 2014, and the Big Ten's Ford-Kinnick Leadership Award in 2015, becoming the first individual to be recognized with both of the conference's annual awards. These awards recognize Big Ten football players that have achieved success in the areas of leadership and humanitarianism after their college careers have ended.


title: Brian Griese

text: Brian and his father, Bob Griese, became the first father-and-son duo in NFL history to both win a Super Bowl. Brian and his father wrote a book together, "Undefeated" (), published in 2000 about their lives through their undefeated seasons and living through the breast cancer illness and death of Brian's mother and Bob's first wife, Judi.


title: Brian Griese

text: Griese married Brook McClintic, a clinical psychologist, in the spring of 2004 on the island of St. John in the U.S. Virgin Islands. The couple met while Griese was playing for the Denver Broncos. On April 6, 2006, Brian and Brook had a child, a baby girl they named Annalia Rose.


title: Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition

text: The Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition of 1914–1917 is considered to be the last major expedition of the Heroic Age of Antarctic Exploration. Conceived by Sir Ernest Shackleton, the expedition was an attempt to make the first land crossing of the Antarctic continent. After Roald Amundsen's South Pole expedition in 1911, this crossing remained, in Shackleton's words, the "one great main object of Antarctic journeyings". Shackleton's expedition failed to accomplish this objective, but became recognized instead as an epic feat of endurance.


title: Imperial Trans-Antarctic Expedition

text: Shackleton had served in the Antarctic on the "Discovery" expedition of 1901–1904, and had led the "Nimrod" expedition of 1907–1909. In this new venture he proposed to sail to the Weddell Sea and to land a shore party near Vahsel Bay, in preparation for a transcontinental march via the South Pole to the Ross Sea. A supporting group, the Ross Sea party, would meanwhile establish camp in McMurdo Sound, and from there lay a series of supply depots across the Ross Ice Shelf to the foot of the Beardmore Glacier. These depots would be essential for the transcontinental party's survival, as the group would not be able to carry enough provisions for the entire crossing. The expedition required two ships: under Shackleton for the Weddell Sea party, and , under Aeneas Mackintosh, for the Ross Sea party.