Sheedy Shake-Up: Bombers to build with new marquee game?

Kevin Sheedy

Having been given a rousing departure from GWS on Tuesday as he was awarded the club’s first life membership, Sheedy was on Melbourne radio less than 24 hours later spruiking a new big game for the Bombers as he prepares to return to the club as an ambassador.

And, while the former Essendon and Giants’ coach didn’t quite reveal all the details, he gave a few hints as to what the match may represent.

“I think there’s another Anzac Day and Dreamtime around the corner for us” Sheedy told SEN’s Morning Glory program. “We just got to find a club who might want to be involved in that type of game. 

“I think the game will be a fantastic opportunity to thank some of the Australian people who have gone through some tough times. 

“So when we get that up and running I think we’ll get a decent partner to play against ...

“(But more plans for) that will probably be announced tomorrow when I come down to do a press conference with Essendon.”

Sheedy’s re-employment at Essendon after being sacked as coach in 2007 appears an attempt by the club to offer a more friendly look than the hard-edged Bombers represented by the ‘Whatever It Takes’ philosophy that epitomised their supplement program issues.

Essendon CEO Xavier Campbell admits the legend’s role at the club is an attempt to help rebuild the brand, while Sheedy said, ‘I don’t know whether they would have asked (me back)’, had it not been for the club’s issues with ASADA and the AFL.

“I don’t think were naive enough to think that our brand hasn’t copped some criticism,” Campbell told SEN’s Run Home on Tuesday evening. “I think it’s dropped some equity in many respects. 

“Kevin will spend an enormous amount of time in the community. He will certainly be thinking of some new initiatives that will continue to make our fans proud. 

“I think in the last couple of years our fans are frustrated at where things are at and how long it’s taken and we want nothing more than this process to come to an end and we want to focus on being a good football club.”

As for his thoughts on the supplement scandal as the AFL gets closer to handing down a tribunal penalty, Sheedy was keeping his cards close to his chest, using his famous gift of the gab to pretty much say nothing at all on the matter.

“I haven’t been there for seven years,” he said. “I’ve been living up here (in Sydney) so I don’t know all the ins and outs. 

“I don’t sit there and read every comment that the AFL’s either found or whatever the complaints are but the situations at the end is, the AFL has fined Essendon, suspended them, they kicked them out of the finals and James Hird for a year. That’s a huge penalty so far. 

“It’s a monster penalty. (A) death by a thousand lashes, that won’t help the AFL, that won’t help these young players who have been put in a very, very precarious situation. 

“We just need to get it right and move on as quick as you can and never forget it ... and never forget it.”

But when questioned about whether that process of moving on was being hurt by James Hird’s continued presence as coach, he leapt to the defence of his 2000 Premiership skipper and seemed to have a sly dig at sports scientist Stephen Dank in the process.

“I can tell you now as coach of Essendon I would not have any idea on what was in any needle,” he said.

“I would have no idea what was in any needle that any doctor or any person put in any of my players. That’s the predicament. 

“It’s all about the trust of who has the needle to put into a person. 

“Even your local doctor; I’ve just had an operation and I hope the anaesthetist is a bloody good bloke, that’s the path we trust. 

“We live in a trust for that moment don’t we? That’s the hard part for everybody and it gets down to the consent factor, when you go and get a flu injection, gees I hope it’s a flu injection.”

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