As the club prepares to move to its new state-of-the-art training and administration base at Melbourne Airport in the coming weeks, Essendon historian Gregor McCaskie reflects on the key moments at Windy Hill over its history.

John Coleman's Debut

Every new season starts with a sense of expectation and the first round of 1949 was no different.

The Bombers had experienced something of a golden era in the ‘40s missing the finals only once, winning flags in 1942 and 1946 and playing in grand finals in 1941, ‘43, ‘47 and again in 1948. The 1948 loss was particularly frustrating. If losing the 1947 grand final by a solitary point wasn’t bad enough, Essendon played Melbourne in the 1948 grand final and drew that game after wayward goalkicking, finishing with an astonishing 7.27. After being the best team all year, the Bomber lost the replay a week later.

The 1948 loss would have been fresh in his mind when club secretary Bill Cookson in the 1948 annual report had expressed the club’s need for a goal kicker, writing: It is very apparent that no team is complete without a spearhead and your committee has high hopes of rectifying that fault this coming season.

No one could have imagined how well the club was about to rectify that fault.

In round 1, 1949, Essendon was drawn to play perennial easy beats Hawthorn. They’d finished 11th the season before and no higher than 10^th in the previous five seasons. Hawthorn joined the competition in 1925 but had never played finals in 24 seasons in the League and had beaten Essendon only once in 19 games going back to 1938. On recent form the stage was set for an Essendon win but no one would have predicted in what fashion.

Hawthorn fielded four debutants that day, Essendon only one, full forward John Coleman. Coleman had arrived at Windy Hill after kicking 163 goals the previous year with Hastings and it was hoped he’d make the step up to league football and become the spearhead Cookson and his committee so eagerly sought.

At the end of the game Essendon had run out predictable winners 18.2.120 to 9.3.57 and there was no doubt that Essendon’s new boy could play.  John Coleman had stolen the show. Before a relatively modest crowds of 13,500, Windy Hill had hosted football’s greatest debut as John Coleman  kicked 12 goals 2 behinds on his way to 100 goals in his debut season. He was the first and still only player to kick 12 goals on debut and 100 in a debut season.

Coleman went on to become one of Australian football’s greats. In the five full seasons Coleman completed he was the league’s leading goal kicker in each of them. His career average of 5.47 goals per game set a new record that has been beaten only once, coincidentally by a Hawthorn player, Peter Hudson.

Coleman went on to play 98 games for the Bombers before his career was cut a short by a knee injury and Windy Hill was to become the venue for many great Coleman performances including another six bags of 10 or more goals. His greatest performance 14.5 against Fitzroy in round 7 1954, at Windy Hill came a week before his final game.

In Windy Hill highlights Coleman’s 12 goals on debut in round 1 1949, ranks at the very top.

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