High Quality Content by WIKIPEDIA articles! The Essendon Football Club, nicknamed The Bombers, is an Australian rules football club in the Australian Football League (AFL). Thought to have formed in 1872, Essendon played their first Victorian Football Association (VFA) game in 1873, before participating in the inaugural season of the Victorian Football League (now AFL) in 1897.Headquartered at the Essendon Recreation Reserve, Windy Hill in the Melbourne suburb of Essendon, the club has won 16 VFL/AFL premierships, which, along with Carlton, is the most of any club.