If the first point of contact you have with Essendon is a meeting with champions such as Dick Reynolds and Bill Hutchison at your house in Ballarat, you’re certainly starting on the right path.

That was the case for this week’s Bomber Legend John Birt, who went on to become a champion in his own right.

194 games, 303 goals, two premierships, three best and fairests and six times representing Victoria is not a bad CV, and it would never have happened if those famous Bombers hadn’t made the trip to watch two school teams battle it out.

“I went to Ballarat College and that was a Presbyterian school and we hadn’t beaten St Pat’s College in 49 years, and this game was well publicised,” Birt said.

“We had the great thrill of winning the game and winning the premiership. As I came off the ground this guy came up to me…and he said, ‘There’s someone over at the gymnasium door that wants to speak to you’.

“As I’m getting closer and closer to the door I’m thinking, ‘That’s Dick Reynolds’.

“I just couldn’t believe that Dick was standing there – this handsome man – a man who’d always been everybody’s idol.”

Reynolds had been impressed by Birt and asked to speak to his parents, setting up the famous meeting.

“Bill Hutchison, Dick Reynolds, (Chairman of Selectors) Howard Okey and Syddy Carman – who was the club treasurer – came to my house in Ballarat.

“And my parents just said after they’d gone, ‘You’re going to play with Essendon’.”

But it wasn’t that simple. While the Ballarat Football Club cleared Birt to head to Windy Hill, the Ballarat Football League had other ideas ahead of the upcoming Country Championships, a tournament it was determined to win.

Reynolds was far from thrilled with the decision – causing a stir in the area by suggesting the youngster would learn nothing from playing “bush football” – but Birt admits the further two years he spent in Ballarat helped better prepare him for the top league.

“The Ballarat Football League refused my clearance and Dick went to Ballarat to plead my case and he got quite upset,” Birt said.

“By the time I got to Essendon to play, I was 19 when I arrived and 20 when I played my first game, but I’d played for virtually two years against men and I think that held me in great stead.”

Birt certainly joined Essendon at the right time – his first two coaches were Reynolds and John Coleman.

“They were completely different, but both legendary Essendon people. The great history of Essendon I think has particularly come from those two plus Hutchy, it was just fantastic.

“I lived two doors from Dick and he was like a friend, like a father, and he treated me like a son.

”Birt described Coleman as a “terribly hard” coach, but someone who managed to squeeze the best out of the on-baller.

“Coley thought that I’d been having it a bit easy under Dick and he put me under a lot of pressure to do things that I hadn’t been doing,” he said.

“But he made me a far better player…in his seven years I won the best and fairest three times.

“I went out there to play for Essendon, play for myself – hopefully play well – ‘but also to show you, Coleman, I can do better than what you think I am’.”

After retiring from his sparkling playing career, Birt went on to become the Bombers’ senior coach in 1971 followed by stints in a variety of roles with Footscray, Hawthorn, Carlton, Collingwood and Fitzroy – a truly brilliant 42 years in the sport.

You can help the club honour Birt’s contribution to Essendon at the club’s crucial clash with Sydney on Friday night at Etihad Stadium.

To hear much more from the Bomber Legend, watch Rohan Connolly’s interview above and listen to it in full via the podcast below.