It seems that every year we hear people say that players are getting bigger, stronger, faster and fitter so we have looked back at Essendon’s premiership players through the years to see just how our players have changed in the last 100 years.
 
Very few height and weight records exist for the 1897 and 1901 premiership seasons however from 1911 onwards, where almost all records are complete, we have heights and weights for all premiership players.
 
Visit the club history page by clicking here.
 
Not surprisingly, our 1911 premiership team was the smallest at an average of only 175.5cm and 75.7kg.
 
To put this to perspective, this is almost exactly the same as new draftee Travis Colyer - one of the smallest players selected in the 2009 national draft - who is 175cm tall and weighs and 73kg, and is marginally taller and heavier than Alwyn Davey at 173cm and 70kg.
 
Thirty years on and the 1942 premiership side has grown 4.5 cm and put an additional 3 kg to average 180cm and 79.9kgs. A current player who is almost identical to this is rookie Marcus Marigliani at 180 cm and 80kg. Sam Lonergan also comes close at 182cm and 80kg.
 
Twenty years later and the 1984 premiers have grown only another 1cm but added another 2kg in weight for an average of 184.8cm and 83.6kg. This is in Mark McVeigh and Kyle Hardingham territory.
 
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Not surprisingly, our 2000 premiership side was the tallest and heaviest at 186.5cm and 88.6kg which is a fraction more than Henry Slattery.
 
So, over the past 100 seasons Bomber players have grown by 11cm and 13kg on average which confirms they are definitely getting bigger and arguably stronger, faster and fitter too.
 
Membership news update – well over 15,000 membership packs have now been sent out to supporters and thousands more will be sent out in the next week.
 
The small, unexpected delay in the mailing of 2010 membership packs (which were originally planned to be sent mid December) is due to a number of factors including an upgrade of Essendon’s  IT systems which will ultimately improve the accuracy of club information.