“All of a sudden it was like, OK, the winds have change blown through here.”
That’s how Essendon legend Tim Watson recalls his first pre-season under Kevin Sheedy at Windy Hill, returning almost 40 years later to the place the legendary coach revolutionised.
Speaking from Windy Hill for the first episode of historical podcast Fabric of the Essendon Football Club, Watson has detailed the immediate and drastic shift under Sheedy after a lean period in the ‘70s, and how he and his teammates instantly became disciples of the master motivator.
>>> AUDIO + EPISODE GUIDE BELOW
“It (major shift) was from day one (under Sheedy),” Watson said.
“We got this call from our team manager Kevin Egan about being at training in October (1980). I was like, ‘What the hell?’ Nobody was training in October, no one.
“Not only were we training in October, but it was five nights a week in October – Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday. Our pre-season the year before started in January, so this was a major shift.
“We all got weighed on the first night, training was explained to us, we all got given a footy. He (Sheedy) said, ‘This is football, we’re not training to be runners, we’re training to be football players’.
“It sounds so simple today, but that just didn’t happen then. That’s how far he was ahead of everyone else back then, and because he was like that, we started to feel like there was a rub-off here and that we’re all part of it.
“I’ve never spoken to anyone else about this, but immediately I was so excited about what was going to happen. I didn’t know how you build success, but he’d come from Richmond and been part of it, so I believed in what he was doing.”
Watson became an Essendon icon under the tutelage of Sheedy, winning three premierships, four Crichton medals and captaining the club.
In this episode, he chats about his journey from humble beginnings in Dimboola to Dons royalty, and his favourite memories along the way.
Fabric of the Essendon Football Club is a weekly 20-episode series powered by Liberty, featuring in-depth chats between club historian Dan Eddy and 20 of the club’s most adored names across multiple decades. You can listen via Omny and Spotify (also coming shortly to Google Podcasts and Apple Podcasts).
EPISODE GUIDE
1:40 – Watson’s recollections of his first game at Windy Hill alongside brother Larry
3:00 – Why Watson’s mum never saw him play one game live
6:30 – A Dons great and "the most authentic human being" Watson has ever met
8:00 – The Dimboola Dons: Doing paper rounds with Merv Neagle as kids and standing on the premiership dais together as Bombers
10:23 – Playing under Barry Davis and the significance of the No.32
12:10 – Kevin Sheedy’s arrival and the start of something special
16:20 – Watson’s surprise prize as the best player of the 1981 Escort Cup series
21:36 – Where the 1985 premiership and season stacks up for Watson
23:08 – Watson’s thoughts on captaincy and how the role has changed over the years
26:20 – Sharing the 1993 premiership triumph with son Jobe
27:58 – Watson’s comeback and the ’93 premiership
30:40 – What Essendon means to Watson
34:00 – Watson’s thoughts on his great mate and club legend Neale Daniher
