The Essendon faithful are spread far and wide across the country, making our interstate games truly feel like home, and long-time Essendon member Nora Khine takes the cake for Western Australia. 
 
President of the WA Bombers, Nora plays an important role in maintaining the long-distance connection between the spiritual home of the Bombers in Essendon, to the dedicated supporters over in WA.   
 
Originally from Myanmar (formerly Burma) in Southeast Asia, Nora moved to Australia in 1988 as a young child and has been based in Perth ever since. Fast-forward to now, Nora is the first female president of the WA Bombers and exudes the Bomber spirit. 
 
Here, Nora shares her story of becoming a Bomber, and how special it’s been for her to share her passion with her fellow WA Bomber members. 
 
 
EFC: How did you discover the Bombers and begin your support for the club? What are you earliest memories of the red and black? 
 
NK: I came to Australia in 1988 and got into the AFL from there. It was as simple as my favourite colours being red and black, and I just picked the Bombers. We were lucky that we had been doing quite well in the 80’s and 90’s.  
 
I watched (Matthew) Lloyd and ‘Hirdy’ (James Hird) in my younger days and I thought they were amazing. I just loved the passion of the club and how we were playing so well, the whole era was amazing, and then I stuck to it. 
 
I didn't know much about footy back then until I met my partner, we’ve been together for 16 years and that's when I started going to the games when the Bombers came to Perth, and I would try going to Melbourne. 

 
 
EFC: Do you have a favourite Essendon memory? 
 
NK: I just remember watching those early games and trying to learn the game itself. 
 
I think the best memory of the game I have was more recent.  
 
When the Club was going through one of its toughest periods (in 2016), we went to Melbourne and played against Gold Coast. There were only 16,000 people at the game, but it was so loud, and we came and we won that game. I think that was only our second game that we won in the whole year. 
 
That is probably the best game I've been to because we were the underdogs. It was one of the loudest games I’ve experienced, and we were sitting with all our friends, everyone was jumping up and down, we were so happy that we won.  
 
Especially with what happened to our club during that time, it was amazing. I know it's only recent, but it was the crowd, it was so loud, we were cheering our hearts out.  
 
 
EFC: As the President of the WA Bombers Supporters Group, can you tell us the importance of staying connected with the fans and the footy club? 
 
NK: I joined the committee about three years ago because I wanted to do anything I could for the WA Bombers, so I joined the committee.  
 
I'm now the first female president of the WA Bombers, and I’ve come pretty far the last three years.  
 
My aim for the WA Bombers is to have a better relationship with the Club; our relationship is very important. 
 
I love to provide a safe environment for our members, and for our supporters to come each week and watch a game.  
 
We have two different function areas that we go to every week to watch the games together. We cheer and support our group as loud as we can. Watching the games together with our supporters every week is the best thing that we do. 

 
EFC: Despite the difficult year that the Dons have had, how exciting is it to see the young ones come through and get a glimpse of the future? 
 
NK: We’ve had 15 debutants so far and I think we have a great future. We have great forwards coming through like (Isaac) Kako and (Archer) May. It’s great to have all of these young players, I think we have a great future.