Created and developed in consultation with past players, premiership captains, key stakeholders and the Club’s official apparel partner adidas, the new design preserves the Club’s famous red sash across the front of the jumper.
Working within the AFL guidelines around dark and light colours, the grey body of the jumper, with the name of every Essendon premiership player embedded, matches the grey colour used in the Essendon Football Club official emblem.
Essendon chairman David Evans said the heritage guernsey provided a unique platform for the Club to commemorate its past.
“In accordance with the directive to provide a fully compliant alternate jumper, the Club has decided on a heritage based guernsey,” Evans said.
“The heritage guernsey provides a meaningful way for Essendon to honour its past and take fans and players on a journey through our history, whilst taking an innovative approach to bringing the Club into line with the other clubs by having a distinctive alternate jumper.
“To achieve the best outcome, we engaged past players and premiership captains of the Club in the design, development and consultation process.
“Through a lot of hard work and creative design we have made a real virtue of the need for the Club to provide the AFL with a more distinctive alternate jumper,” he said.
Essendon captain Jobe Watson said the current day players were impressed with the new guernsey.
“I really like the concept of the jumper and think it looks extremely powerful from a design perspective,” Watson said.
“John Coleman is one of the greatest players of all time and it will be an honour for the current day players to wear a jumper bearing his name.”
Watson also said the heritage guernsey offered the fans a chance to recognize and celebrate past champions of the Club.
“It’s great for the fans to be able to acknowledge the club’s proud history in such a distinctive and unique way,” Watson said.
“To have the name of every premiership player included on the jumper is great recognition for the many players that have provided Bomber fans with so much joy over the years.”
Other features on the jumper include the traditional Essendon Football Club motto ‘suaviter in modo, fortiter in re’ which dates back to the 1870s and translates as ‘gentle in manner, resolute in deed.’
The name and signature of past champion John Coleman is embedded on the breast of the jumper.
Another unique feature on the back of the jumper is a post war era Essendon emblem while the inside of the retail version of the jumper features a special player profile on the neck label that acknowledges John Coleman and includes his career statistics.
It is anticipated a new champion of Essendon will be recognised on the heritage guernsey every two years.
The Bombers will run out on field in the new guernsey for the first time as the away team against St Kilda in Round 15 at Etihad Stadium.
