On June 7, 1873, the Essendon Football Club played its first official game, against Carlton, on a paddock behind the home of founding father Robert McCracken’s property in present-day Ascot Vale. On that momentous afternoon, McCracken’s son John, kicked the only goal of the game, with the victory beginning a 150-year rivalry with the Blues that, this Friday night at the MCG, will be celebrated with a special tribute match to mark the club’s magical milestone.
Between 1873 and 2022, Essendon and Carlton have met on 292 occasions (VFA/VFL/AFL). The Bombers have been victorious 134 times, lost 145, drawn 12 and played one no-result (in 1874). In finals, they have met 20 times, with both teams winning ten. In Grand Finals, the ledger stands at 3-3, the most recent of which was the 1993 decider when the Baby Bombers upset the more experienced Blues. Carlton’s coach that day was David Parkin, who, during his 355 games in charge of the Blues (1981-85 and 1991-2000), faced off against Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy on 41 occasions. ‘Sheeds’ was one of very few coaches who outwitted him, producing a 64.63 per cent winning record over ‘Parko’.
In the 14th episode of historical podcast Fabric of the Essendon Football Club, Parkin spoke about the challenges of trying to outthink and outplay Sheedy from the coach’s box, plus explained his long association with Essendon as firstly a young football follower who swapped ends between quarters to watch John Coleman up close, through to being an opponent while playing for Hawthorn, then later as coach of the Hawks, Blues and Fitzroy.
“I didn’t have a great relationship [with Sheedy],” Parkin said. “As a coach, we were in opposite camps and I think he would have disliked me as much as I [disliked him], probably more than I disliked him. I disliked him because he was so difficult for me to cope with as an opposition coach. My record against him is deplorable in comparison to most other coaches and clubs, so he had me by the short-and-curlies.
“I felt a bit inept and struggled with all that. But I have to say that our friendship, and it’s a real friendship, I enjoy his company now, I choose to spend time with him. We go to functions and we spend time together now and talk about the issues of the game. There’s no better person to do that with, in my humble opinion.
"If you’re interested in Australian Football, whether it's things happening on the field or off the field, Kevin’s the best starting point. He’s got an opinion and attitude to things which - I’m not saying they’re always right - makes us think about the game, and I think the game has benefitted by people like him who do that. So, Kevin has become an admired and respected friend for me, and I’m pleased we got beyond the essence of the contest between the two coaches and the clubs along the way, at Hawthorn and Carlton, and Fitzroy too. I dips my lid to Kevin Sheedy and what he’s been able to do for the game.”
Carlton of the early 1980s was a dominant force in the VFL, but, in Sheedy’s first five seasons at Windy Hill, his Bombers had the wood over Parkin’s side.
“In my first period at Carlton, from 1981-85, we played Essendon, if my memory serves me right, 12 times in that period - including a final and a pre-season game - and we managed to lose the first 11 of those 12. Eventually - and I must admit I did something which was outrageous - in the 12th game, which happened to be at Princes Park in round 17, 1985, I started a wrestle. I took my forwards around the boundary line and the Essendon blokes in those days wouldn’t zone off like they would today, and they came with them and our six blokes started a wrestle. The umpire thought the wrestling had to have been initiated by the Essendon players, so we got the free kick and went on and won the first of our 12 attempts.
“Sheeds was blamed afterwards, but I can publicly say for the first time, Kevin, that I make a public apology. I’ve never had the courage to do it privately, but a public apology [now] for condemning that game and [achieving] a win that we were desperate to get.”
There were many memorable encounters between Essendon and Carlton during the Sheedy-Parkin era, including the 1981 Escort Cup night final and, later that season, the ‘Neale Daniher match’, when Essendon stormed home from 26 points down in time-on of the last quarter to win by one point. But two major finals stand out in the minds of supporters from both clubs to this day - the 1993 Grand Final and the 1999 preliminary final. On both occasions, the favourite side lost.
In 1993, Carlton’s midfield, led by former Essendon ruckman Justin Madden, Greg Williams and Craig Bradley, were almost unstoppable. However, in the lead-up to Grand Final day, Sheedy’s assistant coach in Daniher devised a method to halt their charge, much to Parkin’s surprise.
“I’ve seen the report. It’s a fabulous piece of history where Neale took us apart. Not a single footy club, up to that point, had worked out the tactical set-up for that, and Neale went out and did it and got it 100 per cent right. And the interesting part of the story is that Neale wrote that, had it typed up and, in those days, we didn’t have email - it was done on fax. And the secretary to Neale at his workplace faxed it through, he thought, to Sheeds. He had in fact faxed it through to one of his suppliers, who was a mad Carlton supporter. So, there’s a Carlton supporter during that week, with the total set up which, in the finish, brought us undone. And Neale realised and rang the bloke up and said it wasn’t his, so not to pass it on. If he did, he’d withdraw his workplace from [dealing with] him.
"So, it never got to us…except on the Monday after the Grand Final, when we’d been smashed because of it. The gentleman arrived on my doorstep at the footy club, crying his eyes out, and handed me the fax. That’s how I ended up with the fax. But it was three days too late!”
Six years later, the unthinkable happened, when Essendon, having dominated the 1999 season, stumbled at the last hurdle by falling one point short of the Blues in the preliminary final.
“There were four or five incidents where we were going to lose - Essendon was by far the better team but just couldn’t convert their opportunities; I think they kicked 2.11 at one stage and we were always going to lose. But for some remarkable piece of fate, luck, we were able to hang on and win by a point. Essendon would have then gone to 17 premierships [given they won the following year]. We’re both on 16 at the moment, so it was significant in that sense. We went out and got flogged the next week, whereas Essendon probably would have beaten North. It would have been a classical Grand Final then, between the two best teams in the competition.”
Outpointing Sheedy at the best of times was a significant personal feat for any coach. It was a challenge that Parkin embraced and, as he explained, Sheedy certainly kept him on his toes.
“I was totally and utterly organised and had a place for everything, and if it didn’t work, I’m not so good in coping with the unexpected. With Kevin, even if you were in front and you were playing pretty good football, you were waiting for the next unpredictable thing that Kevin would do. And he did it and did it often, and succeeded against me and us, so I found that very difficult. And also, the other extreme to that is, whenever Kevin had us by the throat, he couldn’t leave it alone. So, Kevin would outsmart himself, often by producing something I don’t know whether he had even thought about before the game - I certainly hadn’t. He’d produce it and it would be his undoing, so we won a few during the late ‘80s and throughout the 90s against Kevin, because he took it to another extreme.”
Parkin is sure that Essendon’s time as a powerhouse club in the AFL will come around again, even if it pains him, as Carlton’s Team of the Century coach, to admit it.
“Essendon will go whack and go over 100,000 people [signed up as members] tomorrow if the success comes. I meet ‘em everywhere in the street, every day of my life I run into Essendon supporters. And they’re as passionate and as committed as any supporter of any club in the competition. And I hate saying it, but Essendon need some real success right at the moment to give this club the kick-along that it needs and deserves.”
That kick-along begins this Friday night, against the club’s oldest rival, in front of a packed house at the MCG as we celebrate 150 years of the Essendon Football Club. No doubt Sheedy and Parkin will be watching on, proud of the roles they played in promoting one of the greatest rivalries the game has ever seen.
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 Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.
