Essendon Bombers odds

No club has enjoyed more VFL/AFL success than Essendon. The Bombers have won 16 top-flight premierships, including the very first way back in 1897. Only Carlton, their oldest rivals, have as many pennants in their clubrooms.

Times have been tough at Windy Hill since the turn of the millennium. After a record-breaking premiership year in 2000, a series of poor recruiting decisions (both on and off the field) saw Essendon vanish into the mires of mid-table mediocrity. Just as things were starting to turn around, a drawn-out doping saga brought the club to its knees, and the Dons are yet to fully recover from it.

Essendon experienced an up and down season in 2023. The Dons had a small chance to finally break their long-running finals hoodoo; however, they were comprehensively beaten in the last two rounds and finished 11th. After the Bombers acquired some high profile recruits during the trade period, they appear ready to take the next step and jump into the top eight in 2024.

How high can these Bombers fly in 2024? Let’s see what the top AFL betting sites can tell us about Essendon’s prospects in the upcoming season.

About the Essendon Football Club

Best bookies for Bombers betting

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Updated Essendon futures betting

Latest Essendon AFL futures odds come courtesy of Sportsbet, where new customers can take advantage of some of the best AFL betting features and markets available. You can view the latest live odds at Sportsbet.com.au.

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Best Bombers bets for the 2024 AFL season

There are dozens of AFL futures markets for Essendon, but where are they likely to return some real value?

Click on the tabs below to get more analysis on these markets:

• Essendon 2024 premiership betting
  Essendon are likely to improve again in 2024, but given the fact that they missed finals in 2023, we don’t think it is realistic to say that the Bombers can win the flag a year later.
• Top 8 betting
  The Bombers are one of the teams that finished outside the top eight last year who can play finals in 2024. At +200, the Bombers are a good bet considering they have a very favourable draw in the first half of the year.
• Brownlow Medal betting
  Zach Merrett has become one of the AFL’s best midfielders and he has consistently polled well in the Brownlow Medal for the Bombers. If Essendon can win more games in 2024, he is a legitimate chance to challenge for the Brownlow this year.

Essendon 2024 AFL fixture

Essendon players to watch in 2024

Xavier Duursma

Born: 7/07/2000
Games: 73
Goals: 33
Position: Midfield/Forward

Xavier Duursma left Port Adelaide during the trade period, ending his 73-game stint with the Power and joined the Bombers. The 23-year-old only played in 16 games for Port Adelaide last year and 11 games in both 2021 and 2022. The hard-running midfielder clearly lost his spot in the Power’s best 22 and the move to the Bombers should provide him with more opportunity. With the likes of Nick Cox, Nick Martin and Nick Hind providing leg speed on the outside, Duursma will compliment them all well and should help strengthen Essendon’s midfield and forward stocks in 2024.

Jake Stringer

Born: 25/04/1994
Games: 189
Goals: 325
Position: Forward

Jake Stringer will enter his seventh season with the Bombers after joining them in 2018. However, Stringer is still seeking to play a full season with Essendon, after he only managed to play 17 games in 2023 and 15 in 2022. The 29-year-old has been tried in the midfield over the last two years as well as playing in the forward 50. In what should be his prime years of his AFL career, Stringer will be hoping that 2024 is the year that he can stay fit and healthy, and ultimately help the Bombers in their push to play finals footy.

Ben McKay

Born: 24/12/1997
Games: 71
Goals: 1
Position: Defender

The biggest recruit during the offseason for the Bombers was Ben McKay. Essendon secured the ex-North Melbourne defender’s signature after he chose to explore his options in free agency at the end of 2023. The relationship between McKay and coach Brad Scott was one of the key pillars of the move and the 26-year-old is set to play a big role in defence for the Dons in 2024.

Essendon records, stats and history

• Player records

  • Most matches: 400 – Dustin Fletcher (1993–2015)
  • Most career goals: 926 – Matthew Lloyd (1995–2009)
  • Most goals in a season: 120 – John Coleman (1950)
  • Most goals in a match: 14 – John Coleman (1954)
  • Best and fairest awards: 7 – Bill Hutchison and Dick Reynolds

• Team records

  • Most wins in a season: 21 (2000)
  • Most consecutive wins: 20 (2000)
  • Highest score in a match: 32.16.208 (vs. Footscray, 1982)
  • Highest winning margin: 165 (vs. South Melbourne, 1964)
  • Highest home attendance: 93,373 (vs. Collingwood, 2013)

• Essendon history
  The Essendon Football Club began life as a juniors team in 1871. Seven years later, the Dons entered the senior ranks of the Victorian Football Association. They enjoyed considerable success over the next decade, winning four consecutive premierships from 1891 to 1894.

  Essendon were one of seven VFA clubs that broke away to found the Victorian Football League in 1896. They won the inaugural VFL Premiership a year later and went on to win three more flags prior to the outbreak of World War I.

  The next few decades established Essendon as one of Melbourne’s true powerhouse clubs. Boasting superstars such as Dick Reynolds, Bill Hutchison and John Coleman, the red and black claimed three premierships between 1946 and 1950 to become only the second club to win 10 flags.

  After intermittent success in the ’50s and ’60s, the drought set in. Although the club was financially strong, an inability to find and keep top-end players saw the Bombers go the entirety of the 1970s without reaching a grand final.

  Then Kevin Sheedy came to the rescue. Appointed as coach in 1981, the former Richmond premiership player steered Essendon to the VFL Grand Final two years later – their first since 1968. They lost to Hawthorn on that occasion, but they bounced back with consecutive flag wins over the Hawks in ’84 and ’85.

  The AFL was formed in 1990 and Sheedy was determined to make Essendon one of the big wigs of the nascent national competition. The ‘Baby Bombers’ surprised everyone in 1993, besting Carlton in the decider with a young squad that featured future legends such as James Hird, Dustin Fletcher, Mark Mercuri, Joe Misiti and Gavin Wanganeen.

  New stars emerged throughout the ’90s. Some canny trading brought in Matthew Lloyd and Scott Lucas, who would form one of the game’s great forward partnerships. A series of near-misses throughout the decade culminated in a record-breaking 2000 campaign, when the Dons won 21 of 22 home and away games before smashing Melbourne in the grand final.

  The following years were less fruitful. As stars of the ’93 and ’00 premierships moved on, Sheedy and his staff sought out experienced off-cuts rather than trading for top-shelf talent or trusting in the draft. The result was a rapid decline from which the club is yet to fully recover.

  Just as things were starting look up under the stewardship of dual premiership hero James Hird, disaster struck. From 2012 to 2016, the club was embroiled in a doping scandal that resulted in 34 past and present players missing an entire season of football. Hird lost his job, the hierarchy was in tatters and the Dons were forced to play out the 2016 campaign with a patchwork squad of untried kids and second-tier recruits.

  There was a silver lining among all those storm clouds. With a dozen first-team players out of commission, Essendon had no choice but to trust in young, raw talents and hope for the best. The result was a return to finals footy in 2017 and a Rising Star nod for top draft pick Andy McGrath. With names like Merrett, Parish, Ridley, Shiel, and Heppell on the books, the future is bright at Bomberland.

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