The Essendon Football Club Family gathered at the Luminare in South Melbourne, to officially launch the 2015 season.

More than five-hundred guests gathered at the rooftop venue to wish the players success ahead of the Bombers’ opening clash with Sydney.

The entire playing list was presented with their guernseys, and it came as no surprise when Dustin Fletcher received one of the loudest cheers as he prepares for his 23^rd AFL season.

The large crowd of red and black faithful listened as Chairman, Paul Little, Senior Coach, James Hird, and Captain, Jobe Watson outlined their vision and objectives for the upcoming campaign.

Little said the club was well positioned ahead of a blockbuster 2015 schedule and thanked the commercial partners and supporters for their ongoing support.

“There is a great sense of excitement about the future. We have incredibly loyal staff, a talented and experienced playing list, and wonderful support from our commercial partners and passionate members and supporters,” Little said.

“At Essendon, Our Fabric is strong. It’s time for the Essendon Football Club to again make our people proud and for the Essendon faithful to don the sash and unite behind our club.”

“Our 2015 membership campaign, formally launched today, celebrates the strength of the Fabric that bonds our Club and its 142 year history and success,” Little said.

“Everyone in the room tonight is part of this bond, this Fabric. Each and every player, staff member and fan has contributed to the Fabric of our wonderful Club.”

Little added the impending AFL Tribunal decision would hopefully provide closure to the ASADA saga.

“Unfortunately, the AFL tribunal decision will not be known until the end of the month and we continue to deal with this uncertainty as a football club.”

“We remain confident in the position of our players and will continue to support them unconditionally throughout this stressful time.”

Hird is firm in his belief the team is fantastic shape with less than two weeks to their opening game against last year's Grand Finalists, Sydney.

“We looked at the age demographic of our list and where we thought we needed more experience on the list,” Hird said.

“We needed someone to help our backs out, and we were fortunate James Gwilt was there and wanted to come to the club. We obviously needed a ruckman to replace Paddy and we were able to get Shaun McKernan and Jonathan Giles to come in. And then we identified we needed more outside speed and a guy who was highly talented and highly skilled, and we were able to bring Adam Cooney into the club.”

“The playing group we have is a special playing group, they’ve been through so much and shown so much resilience, they’re a very talented group, they deserve success and I believe they will achieve success this year.”

The Captain adding he has been impressed by the depth and collective attitude of the list.

“The last two weeks the players have ramped up their competitive side of training and I feel as if we will be in really good shape for round one,” Watson said.

“I think the players have trained exceptionally hard, we’ve stayed together as a group, and I feel as if the level that we’ve trained at, and the quality in the team, we’re looking forward to going out and showing what we can do.”

The night was also an opportunity to pay special tribute to two former players.  

Brownlow Medallist, Graham Moss, and one of the club's modern Indigenous leaders, Nathan Lovett-Murray, were both presented with Life Membership.

Moss played 84 games with Essendon between 1973 and 1976. In his four seasons, the ruckman won a Brownlow Medal (1976) and three Crichton Medals (1974, 75 and 76). Moss also captained the Bombers in his last season at the club (1976). Moss returned to Western Australia to continue his career with Claremont in the WAFL the following season. In 1996 he was inducted into the Australian Football Hall of Fame.

During his 142 games with the Bombers, Lovett-Murray excited the crowd with his explosive speed, and natural instinct for goal. His strength and courage on the field was comparable to a warrior. Proud of his Indigenous heritage, Lovett-Murray was also a fearless leader off the field, stepping up as a role model and leader to his indigenous teammates.