Editing Essendon Football Club (section)

=== Return to suburban Essendon (1921–1932) ===
[[File:Fred Baring.jpg|left|thumb|150px|[[Fred Baring]] during the 1920s]]
After the 1921 season, the [[East Melbourne Cricket Ground]] was closed and demolished to expand the [[Jolimont Yard|Flinders Street Railyard]]. Having played at the East Melbourne Cricket Ground from 1882 to 1921, and having won four VFA premierships (1891–1894) and four VFL premierships ([[1897 VFL season|1897]], [[1901 VFL season|1901]], [[1911 VFL season|1911]] and [[1912 VFL season|1912]]) whilst there,<ref>Mapleston (1996), p.56.</ref> Essendon was looking for a new home. It was offered grounds at the current [[Royal Melbourne Showgrounds]], [[Ascot Vale]]; at [[Victoria Park, Melbourne|Victoria Park]], Melbourne; at [[Arden Street Oval|Arden St, North Melbourne]]; and the Essendon Cricket Ground. The Essendon City Council offered the (VFL) team the Essendon Cricket Ground, announcing that it would be prepared to spend over £12,000 ($1,009,066 in 2021 terms, according to the [[Retail Price Index]]<ref>{{Cite web |title=Posting calculations |url=https://www.thomblake.com.au/secondary/hisdata/calculate.php |access-date=19 December 2022 |website=www.thomblake.com.au}}</ref>) on improvements, including a new grandstand, scoreboard and re-fencing of the oval.

The club's first preference was to [[1921 VFA season#Closure of the East Melbourne Cricket Ground|move to North Melbourne]]<ref name="1JulyArgus">{{cite news|newspaper=The Argus|date=1 July 1921|title=Football – the "passing" of Essendon|page=4|publication-place=Melbourne|author=Old Boy}}</ref>—a move which the [[North Melbourne Football Club]] (then in the VFA) saw as an opportunity to get into the VFL. Most of Essendon's members and players were from the North Melbourne area, and sportswriters believed that Essendon would have been taken over by or rebranded as North Melbourne within only a few years of the move.<ref name="8JulyArgus">{{cite news|newspaper=The Argus|date=8 July 1921|title=Football – North Melbourne ground|page=4|publication-place=Melbourne|author=Old Boy}}</ref><ref name="9JulyAustralasian">{{cite news|newspaper=The Australasian|publication-place=Melbourne|date=8 July 1921|title=Football – notes and comments|page=69|author=J.W.|volume=CXI|issue=2884}}</ref> However, the VFA, desperate for its own strategic reasons not to lose its use of the North Melbourne Cricket Ground, [[1921 VFA season#Association protest|successfully appealed]] to the State Government to block Essendon's move to North Melbourne.<ref name="12AugustArgus">{{cite news|newspaper=The Argus|date=12 August 1921|title=North Melbourne ground|page=6|publication-place=Melbourne}}</ref> With its preferred option off the table, the club returned to Essendon, and the Essendon VFA club disbanded, with most of its players moving to North Melbourne.<ref name="22OctoberAustralasian">{{cite news|newspaper=The Australasian|publication-place=Melbourne|date=22 October 1921|title=Football – notes & comments|author=J.W.|volume=CXI|issue=2899}}</ref>

The old "Same Olds" nickname fell into disuse, and by 1922 the other nicknames "Sash Wearers" and "Essendonians" that had been variously used from time to time were also abandoned. The team became universally known as "the Dons" (from Essen'''DON'''); it was not until much later, during the [[World War II|War years]] of the early 1940s, that they became known as "The [[Bomber]]s" due to Windy Hill's proximity to the [[Essendon Airport|Essendon Aerodrome]].<ref>Hutchinson, 1996, p.159.</ref>

In the [[1922 VFL season|1922 season]], playing in Essendon for the first time in decades, Essendon reached the final four for the first time since [[1912 VFL season|1912]], finishing in third place. In the [[1923 VFL season|1923 season]], the club topped the ladder with 13 wins from 16 games. After a 17-point Second Semi-Final loss to [[South Melbourne FC|South Melbourne]], Essendon defeated [[Fitzroy Football Club|Fitzroy]] (who had beaten South Melbourne) in the [[1923 VFL Grand Final|1923 Grand Final]] (then known as a "Challenge Final" due to its different finals format): Essendon 8.15 (63) to Fitzroy 6.10 (46). Amongst Essendon's best players were half-forward flanker [[George Shorten|George "Tich" Shorten]], centre half-forward [[Justin McCarthy (footballer)|Justin McCarthy]], centre half-back [[Tom Fitzmaurice]], rover [[Frank Maher (footballer)|Frank Maher]], and wingman [[Jack Garden]]. This was one of Essendon's most famous sides, dubbed the "Mosquito Fleet" due to the number of small, very fast players in the side. Six players were 5'6" (167&nbsp;cm) or smaller.

In the [[1924 VFL season|1924 season]], for the first time since their inaugural premiership in 1897, there was no ultimate match to decide the league's champion team – either "Challenge Final" or "Grand Final" – to determine the premiers; instead, the top four clubs after the home-and-away season played a [[Round-robin tournament|round-robin]] to determine the premiers. Essendon, having previously defeated both Fitzroy (by 40 points) and South Melbourne (by 33 points), clinched the premiership by means of a 20-point loss to Richmond. With the Tigers having already lost a match to Fitzroy by a substantial margin, the Dons were declared premiers by virtue of their superior percentage, meaning that Essendon again managed to win successive premierships. But the low gates for the finals meant this was never attempted again, resulting in Essendon having the unique record of winning the only two premierships without a grand final.<ref>{{Cite web|title=1924 Premiership|url=https://www.essendonfc.com.au/club/history/premierships/1924|website=essendonfc.com.au|access-date=29 May 2020}}</ref><ref name=":1">{{Cite book|last=Murray|first=John|title=Glory & Fame: The Rise and Rise of the Essendon Football Club|publisher=Slattery Media Group|year=2009|isbn=978-0-9805162-9-6|location=Australia}}</ref>

Prominent contributors to Essendon's 1924 Premiership success included back pocket [[Clyde Donaldson]], follower [[Norm Beckton]], half-back flanker [[Roy Laing]], follower [[Charlie May (footballer)|Charlie May]], and rover [[Charlie Hardy]].<ref name=":1" /> The 1924 season was not without controversy, however, with rumours of numerous players accepting bribes. Regardless of the accuracy of these allegations, the club's image was tarnished, and the side experienced its lowest period during the decade that followed, with poor results on the field and decreased support off it.{{Citation needed|date=April 2014}}

There was worse to follow, with various Essendon players publicly blaming each other for a poor performance against [[Richmond Football Club|Richmond]], and then, with dissension still rife in the ranks, the side plummeted to an unexpected and humiliating 28-point loss to VFA premiers [[Footscray Football Club|Footscray]] in a [[Dame Nellie Melba's Limbless Soldiers' Appeal match|special charity match]] played a week later in front of 46,100 people, in aid of [[Dame Nellie Melba's Limbless Soldiers' Appeal match|Dame Nellie Melba's Limbless Soldiers' Appeal Fund]], purportedly (but not officially) for the championship of Victoria.<ref>{{cite web|last=Frost|first= Lionel|title=Did the 1924 Bombers throw their last game|date=25 September 2006|publisher=AFL Official Website|url=http://afl.com.au/Season2007/News/NewsArticle/tabid/208/Default.aspx?newsId=32977|url-status=dead|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080308092128/http://afl.com.au/Season2007/News/NewsArticle/tabid/208/Default.aspx?newsId=32977|archive-date=8 March 2008}}</ref>

The club's fortunes dipped alarmingly—and persistently. Indeed, after finishing third in the [[1926 VFL season|1926 season]], it was to be 14 years later—in [[1940 VFL season|1940]]—before Essendon would even contest a finals series.<ref>{{Cite web|title=AFL Tables – 1940 Season Scores|url=https://afltables.com/afl/seas/1940.html#fin|access-date=25 September 2021|website=afltables.com}}</ref>