Anything beats a real job would seem to be the operative principle behind Essendon Bomber premiership defender Sean Wellman’s attempt to gain a seat on the Bomber’s board, taking the place of outgoing football director Chris Hefferman.
Wellman’s footy career spanned 2012 games at the senior level. He played for the Adelaide Crows 34 times in his first two seasons in the league, 1994 and 1995. He jumped to the Bombers in 1996, enjoying one of his best seasons in 2000, when the Dons beat the Dees in the Grand Final by a rather decisive 135 – 75 score. He had a good showing in that game. For his career, he averaged a 61.08 percent winning strike rate, with 14.15 disposals per game.
Since leaving the game as a player following 2004, he has most recently served the Dons as an assistant coach up until 2013, including time spent training the Dons who had to sit out 2016 as the result of the drug ban from the ill-fated 2012 season.
There are two vacancies on the Essendon Board ahead of next month’s annual meeting and Wellman hopes to pass his skills and knowledge of the game to the current generation of Dons.
He told the Herald Sun, “I’m really passionate about the club having success and winning our 17th premiership as quickly as we can, but I also understand the work and the challenges that are involved. “Having been involved at the playing and coaching level, I think I understand what is required in the day-to-day operations to help drive a successful team culture.And that includes the communication between the football department and the board and, going the other way, as well.”
Essendon has landed Jake Stringer, Adam Saad and Devon Smith after having a most successful trade period, something that Wellman could not fail to mention.
“I think it’s a good sign that people want to come to Essendon and that’s a credit to the work people have done to obviously get through the last few years, but also creating an environment that people want to be a part of,” he said.
