‘Bombers’ Football Team Considering Logo Change Over Wartime Connotations

The Essendon Bombers logo is seen outside the locked out Essendon Football Club at Tullarmarine in Melbourne, Australia on Jan. 12, 2016. Michael Dodge/Getty Images

The CEO of Essendon Football Club in Melbourne has been forced to defend a decision to review the team’s decades-old logo, a fighter jet, saying the contentious move is only part of a “research project.”

The “Bomber” nickname was adopted in the 1940s due to the proximity of the team’s home base to the Essendon Airport. The current logo was introduced in 1998, making it the second oldest logo in the Australian Football League.

On June 19, the club was revealed to be carrying out a “preliminary research project” to change its emblem and would receive feedback from various stakeholders, according to an SEN report.

“If the Bombers could come up with a logo that represented their team spirit and had a positive message for today’s world, I think it would be fantastic,” said Elise West, of the Medical Association for the Prevention of War, in an interview with 7 News.

The Bombers logo is seen during an Essendon Bombers AFL training session at The Hangar in Melbourne, Australia on June 21, 2023. Robert Cianflone/Getty Images

However, the move prompted a critical response from former Essendon player Matthew Lloyd.

“I'd be very disappointed if the Bomber was gone,” he told Nine’s Footy Classified.

“Have we got to that point, have we? That such a great logo and tradition of the Essendon Football Club—because it might upset the odd person or two, we lose something so special with our football club. I hope it stays.”

While another former player, Allan Hird Jr., father of James Hird, said management should be focused on fixing more pressing issues at the club.

“The ‘Dons’ looking at changing its logo to suit the Zeitgeist ignores the club’s history and those brave men and women associated with the club who fought for our country in WWII,” he wrote in the Herald Sun newspaper.

“But the club’s brand matters little in the scheme of things when one understands the rotting at the club’s centre,” he added.

“Forget about the brand. Get the club united behind the coach and the players, and Essendon in the 2020s may get a taste of the success [coach Kevin] Sheedy brought us.”

Club President Says Nickname Safe, But No Word on Logo

Essendon President Dave Barham issued a statement saying the club was conducting a “preliminary research project” around the brand and its elements.

“The research project is in its early phase. Members and supporters have been and will continue to be canvassed as part of this process, in addition to the engagement of multiple Essendon Football Club stakeholders,” he said.

“There is no immediate action to change the club logo or any elements of the club brand. This is a longer-term project with significant work to be completed,” he said.

“We will always be called the Bombers,” he added in reference to the club’s nickname, but whether the actual logo and brand are changed remains to be seen.

Essendon and the Culture Wars

This is not the first time the Bombers have found themselves in culture war territory.

Late last year, former National Australia Bank CEO Andrew Thorburn, quit the role of Essendon CEO after just one day.

“It became clear to me that my personal Christian faith is not tolerated or permitted in the public square, at least by some and perhaps by many,” he wrote on LinkedIn.

“I was being required to compromise beyond a level that my conscience allowed,” he added.

“People should be able to hold different views on complex personal and moral matters and be able to live and work together, even with those differences, and always with respect. Behaviour is the key. This is all an important part of a tolerant and diverse society.”

Thorburn had been chairman of the City on a Hill church, which had delivered sermons likening abortion to concentration camps and calling homosexuality a sin.

Essendon was later sued by Thorburn before a settlement was reached in December 2022.

“A critical element of this resolution is to enable a wider community conversation on the importance of freedom of conscience, religion, and belief and how to have a respectful dialogue between people with different views and perspectives,” the club said in a statement.

“All people should be respected and welcomed in workplaces and community organisations. No one should have to choose between their faith or sexuality and their employment.”