Few photographs in the past 150 years have better encapsulated the fabric and culture of the Essendon Football Club than one which was taken in the early 1950s.
Seated on a bench in the dressing room at Windy Hill are Dick Reynolds and Bill Hutchison—Australian Football Hall of Fame Legends with five Brownlow Medals between them—and their sons, Graeme and Warwick Reynolds and Bruce Hutchison.
The photograph explains everything that is great about Essendon. Success, respect, mateship, pride, inclusiveness and family. Yet the image, which for many years adorned a wall inside the corridors at Windy Hill, took decades to originally see the light of day. It sat in a box in the Hutchison family home until the Herald Sun’s Jon Anderson approached the family, seeking any rarely-seen images of Bill who had died of cancer on 18 June 1982, aged just 59.
Speaking on the 19th episode of historical podcast Fabric of the Essendon Football Club, Bruce Hutchison explained how the photograph came to light.
“When Dad passed away, I got a phone call from Jon Anderson. He said, ‘Have you got any photos other than what I’ve got, we’ve seen them a million times before. Have you got something new?’ I said, ‘As a matter of fact…’ and I explained it to him. He sent a courier straight around and Mum handed it over and it was in the newspaper. Everyone commented on it, it was such a good thing. I’m so glad I got it out. If no one had asked me for it, no one would have seen it.”
The Hutchison name, like that of Reynolds, is akin to royalty at Essendon. Indeed, just two days before the legendary ‘King Richard’ died in 2002, he declared that his great mate was the finest player Essendon had ever produced. And Reynolds would know. He played with and coached the likes of John Coleman, Ken Fraser, Jack Clarke and Keith Forbes, and later watched many of the modern-day champions such as Simon Madden, James Hird, Tim Watson and Graham Moss.
Hutchison’s record is certainly remarkable. Between 1942-57, he played 290 games and kicked 496 goals, and he shares the record—with Reynolds—for most best and fairest awards in Essendon’s history (seven).
He won four premierships from 10 Grand Finals and was named among the best players in most of them. ‘Hutchy’ was also a dual All-Australian (1953, 1956), captained the Bombers (1951-57), and represented Victoria on 30 occasions. A testament to his consistency, in five separate seasons Hutchison finished in the top three for Brownlow Medal votes, and eight times in the top 10. He averaged 0.86 votes per game throughout his career, eclipsing triple-winner Reynolds who averaged 0.79.
After finishing third on Brownlow night in 1948 and again in 1951, Hutchison tied for first with Richmond ruckman, Roy Wright, in 1952, but lost the award on a countback. They had both polled 3 votes on five occasions, but Wright received more 2-votes (3 to 2). Ever the bridesmaid, Hutchison assumed he’d missed his chance to join Reynolds as a Brownlow winner for Essendon. But that disappointment turned to joy in 1953, when Hutchy, aged 30, polled 26 votes—including eight times being judged best afield—to win by four votes from Collingwood’s Bob Rose.
And some say Hutchison should have won again in 1955, when he finished one vote short of South Melbourne full-back, Fred Goldsmith. One match, in particular, had a huge bearing on the result. When the Bombers hosted South in round 8, Goldsmith conceded nine goals to Essendon full-forward, Hugh Mitchell, but umpire John Frood awarded the 3 votes to Goldsmith, despite the home team—led by Mitchell’s heroics—dominating all day to win by 38 points.
In 1981, the VFL awarded two Brownlow Medals on the night when Barry Round (South) and Bernie Quinlan (Fitzroy) tied for the award. They did so again in 1986 (Hawthorn’s Robert DiPierdomenico and Sydney’s Greg Williams) and 1987 (St Kilda’s Tony Lockett and Hawthorn’s John Platten), by which time Bruce was asking, “What about Dad?” Bill had gone to his grave in 1982 believing he had ‘only’ won the one Brownlow.
Finally, however, in 1989, the League corrected the anomaly by awarding retrospective medals to all the men who had previously lost the award on countback. Hutchison’s widow, Nell, stood proudly on stage as Reynolds draped the 1952 Brownlow Medal over her head; a fitting gesture given their journeys had run parallel for decades.
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.
