Club History Part 2 added - a deal with the devil. An oral history of essendons 2000 season.

[Howard Moon]

Part 1 - 5



For Essendon, the end of the 90s resulted in two failed preliminary finals, and three one-point finals losses (to the Lions, Swans in '96 and Blues in '99). But in 2000 a switch was flicked. Several stars returned from injury, some younger players emerged, and a club-wide determination after so many recent finals heartbreaks resulted in the Bombers delivering one of the greatest, devastating seasons in AFL history...

'The '99 prelim ripped our hearts out': An oral history of Essendon's 2000 season

It is 20 years since Essendon went on a destructive 24-1 run to claim their 16th premiership. ESPN's Justin Robertson tracked down 20 key figures, including players, coaches and fitness staff to put together an oral history of that season. This is Part 1.

www.espn.com.au

Should be a good read!

 

[Jesse Custer]

Ah the good old days

 

[Howard Moon]

My initial take is there was not one excuse made, by any if them.

If this happens now we are spinning excuses left and right...too many Injuries, too much wind, too wet, not enough break... gameplan...whatever

Nobody once blamed injurues to star players, they just accepted they were not good enough and had to get better. ...and that is how you get better, by first admitting you are not good enough. Something we never do today.

 

[Lore]

Part 1 - 5



For Essendon, the end of the 90s resulted in two failed preliminary finals, and three one-point finals losses (to the Lions, Swans in '96 and Blues in '99). But in 2000 a switch was flicked. Several stars returned from injury, some younger players emerged, and a club-wide determination after so many recent finals heartbreaks resulted in the Bombers delivering one of the greatest, devastating seasons in AFL history...

'The '99 prelim ripped our hearts out': An oral history of Essendon's 2000 season

It is 20 years since Essendon went on a destructive 24-1 run to claim their 16th premiership. ESPN's Justin Robertson tracked down 20 key figures, including players, coaches and fitness staff to put together an oral history of that season. This is Part 1.

www.espn.com.au

Should be a good read!

Hey look it's that Justin Robertson again! Third time in a few days a great article by him has been posted on the forum. Didn't know who he was last week. One to watch I think.

 

[eth-dog]

Still the greatest season of all time for me.

 

[Lore]

Lloyd (via AFL Media): Halfway through the last quarter, when we knew North were going to win it, we crossed the road, there was a restaurant. Robert Shaw handed out folders and he said 'Sheeds and I have discussed - these are the three teams we need to beat'. And it changed our mindset from the heartbreak of seven days earlier to the mission we needed to go on, to win the 2000 premiership.

Shaw: We went over the season and started the plan for 2000. It started there and then. I remember he (Sheedy) got me to do a match analysis of our challengers for the next year.

Lucas: Robert Shaw spoke about a lot of different things, what the great teams do and what we can learn from the week before and how we needed to prepare over the summer to get it right in 2000.

Wellman: You could still hear the Kangaroos theme song playing. Over and over again. Sheeds just addressed us about how we gifted a Grand Final away. And that, the same time next year we're going to do everything we can to make sure we're celebrating a premiership.

Barnard: The moment we walked down to Geppetto's was the moment the pre-season started for us. A few home truths were spoken, not in a personal way, but more about accountability, what players needed to improve on and what we were going to do about it.

Fletcher: My memory after leaving that meeting, was that every player had in their head what they had to do to be a better player. For me, I had to work on my endurance. Everyone had their area where they had to improve on.

Heffernan: It was very much put on the table that night from Sheeds, this is not a normal break, that this next year starts now and he didn't want anyone to come back not ready to go.

Quinn: We just weren't quite hard-edged enough, mature enough to win the flag in '99. The fact that we lost absolutely lifted the focus and the intensity. It was almost like an obsession that 2000 became. That was the gift of losing the preliminary final which became the heights of 2000.

Harvey: What you normally find is a lot of teams who have gone through playing in finals in consecutive years, have learned their lessons throughout the course of that and we were one of those teams. It was reminded to the players to drive yourself further, that if we ever got in that position again, we were not going to go through those emotions of that particular final. Then we went about our business.

Sounds like a galvanising experience. I wonder if most of the better premiership teams have had something like that that pushed them to get to the next level?

The only thing that's galvanised us recently is the saga and we don't have many of those players left.

 

[Pweter]

I've never been so gutted after a game of footy as I was after the 99 prelim. It was worse than losing the 83 GF to Hawthorne and the 90 GF to Collingwood. On both of those days we were comprehensively outplayed, in 99 we didn't get the opportunity to be outplayed or do the outplaying and it ultimately came down to a lack of respect for our opponents on prelim final day.

 

[Pweter]

Sounds like a galvanising experience. I wonder if most of the better premiership teams have had something like that that pushed them to get to the next level?

The only thing that's galvanised us recently is the saga and we don't have many of those players left.

I dunno, I reckon being heckled by the Carlton supporters on GF day would've been all the ammo they needed as individuals and as a collective.

 

[Lore]

I dunno, I reckon being heckled by the Carlton supporters on GF day would've been all the ammo they needed as individuals and as a collective.

Well yes, it's sort of a three-parter. You lose the game you should not have lost, watch the opponent play in the granny you believe you would have won, and then go and debrief so that you know exactly how to put all of that ammo to good use in your personal preparation so that it doesn't happen again.

I don't think buying a team set of grand final tickets would be the thing for us right now though. And I'm not sure if the season we've just had caused enough anger to be useful. It doesn't sting so much as it bruises. Especially if the stadium is empty

I guess the lesson in it is that there is an "I" in "team" after all. It's not just team and game plan, everyone has things they need to work on and a very good reason to do the work, so get on with it.

 

[Pweter]

It's not just team and game plan, everyone has things they need to work on and a very good reason to do the work, so get on with it.

Lore for head coach

 

[mike14]

I've never been so gutted after a game of footy as I was after the 99 prelim. It was worse than losing the 83 GF to Hawthorne and the 90 GF to Collingwood. On both of those days we were comprehensively outplayed, in 99 we didn't get the opportunity to be outplayed or do the outplaying and it ultimately came down to a lack of respect for our opponents on prelim final day.

I don't know why, but I actually found the '95 semi more annoying than '99

 

[Lore]

Lore for head coach

Think I'd be better suited taking notes for the analysts and doing admin for the recruiting department lol.

 

[Squeaky]

We should be right for next year then - the 99 team only lost by a point and used that motivation to come back nearly undefeated;
This 2020 team has beaten by heaps more points... we can't lose!

 

[BrunoV]

There are 2 times I remember actually going to the Royal Melbourne Show.

1993 prelim and 1999 prelim.

It is safe to say I will never inflict the show on my children.

 

[Mootsy]

I've never been so gutted after a game of footy as I was after the 99 prelim. It was worse than losing the 83 GF to Hawthorne and the 90 GF to Collingwood. On both of those days we were comprehensively outplayed, in 99 we didn't get the opportunity to be outplayed or do the outplaying and it ultimately came down to a lack of respect for our opponents on prelim final day.

Great game, but left it til the last minute and didn't defend, in 2000 we averaged winning margin of 50+ per game. Dominated the competition.

 

[mickd]

I've never been so gutted after a game of footy as I was after the 99 prelim. It was worse than losing the 83 GF to Hawthorne and the 90 GF to Collingwood. On both of those days we were comprehensively outplayed, in 99 we didn't get the opportunity to be outplayed or do the outplaying and it ultimately came down to a lack of respect for our opponents on prelim final day.

I cried at the G after the 99 prelim. What should have been. The 2000 season made up for it thou. It’s been too long between drinks, something needs to change.

 

[srobbo]

I’ve never felt so sick after a game. Sat with my head in my hands for about 10 mins listening to the old dark on repeat. Got hideously drunk & woke up sobbing Sunday morning after the reality set in.

2000 was just the best year of my life. Missed only one melb game all year & have never felt so determined to experience what was rightfully ours.

 

[fairbump_playon]

Tears, anger, disbelief... and then numbness.

Had been a rabidly passionate Bombers fan my whole life. But I was in my early 20s and my life was changing.

I stopped watching football that day. Did not see one minute of the 2000 season and I didn't watch another game until I happened to flick the telly on at about half time on Anzac Day 2009.

 

[Howard Moon]

https://www.espn.com.au/afl/story/_...l-history-essendon-incredible-2000-afl-season

Part 2

 

[Howard Moon]

.....During the pre-season camp we brought out a snippet of a movie with Robert Redford called "Jeremiah Johnson", a film from the 1970s. Redford played a soldier who had been to a war in America and he'd had enough of the fight and just wanted to find himself. He fled to the mountains where a tribe of Indians wanted to get him off the mountain. They kept attacking and attacking. And he'd take them on one by one. There's one integral scene that became the Bombers of 2000. There's an old trapper and he's talking to Jeremiah Johnson and says 'why do you stay up here, it's best you go back into town and get out of these mountains'. Jeremiah looks at him and just says 'I've been to a town.' And that was Essendon. We'd been to a town of losing in a preliminary final and knew what it was like to be everybody else. We wanted to know what it was like on the mountain and do whatever that took to be there....



I've been to a town, been living here near on 20 years now..

 

[Howard Moon]

....It's all very well to say 'I'm kilo overweight, I can get away with it' and I wanted to show them what difference a kilo would make. So I went to the butcher shop down at Moonee Ponds and got 50 1kg bags of sausages in plastic bags. I turned up to training and I strapped 1kg of sausages above the backside of every player and made them do the session with the extra kilogram of sausages on them....


Try weights Quinny! They smell less, and you can use them next week

 

[Pweter]

....It's all very well to say 'I'm kilo overweight, I can get away with it' and I wanted to show them what difference a kilo would make. So I went to the butcher shop down at Moonee Ponds and got 50 1kg bags of sausages in plastic bags. I turned up to training and I strapped 1kg of sausages above the backside of every player and made them do the session with the extra kilogram of sausages on them....


Try weights Quinny! They smell less, and you can use them next week

The smell is important, makes them remember what happens if they take shortcuts. They were throwing up half the time regardless, no need to have the stink of raw hot snags to make things worse.

 

[Howard Moon]

The smell is important, makes them remember what happens if they take shortcuts. They were throwing up half the time regardless, no need to have the stink of raw hot snags to make things worse.

I thought it was like bugs bunny when the dogs would chase you with sausages hanging out your pocket

 

[Pweter]

I thought it was like bugs bunny when the dogs would chase you with sausages hanging out your pocket

Could be why they had so much pace, power and endurance that season.

1. Sausages
2. Release the hounds
3. Premiership

 

[Howard Moon]

Could be why they had so much pace, power and endurance that season.

1. Sausages
2. Release the hounds
3. Premiership

Wonder if it comes under the soft cap? 50 kg of sausage, I'm going to assume they were pork and fennel Sicilian because dodo procured them, at $ 20 a kg..... A grand worth of handicap weight