A starting point between Blues and Bombers
Paul Van Der Haar, Grant Fowler, Glen Hawker, Merv Neagle and Terry Daniher (no. 5), congratulate Neale Daniher (second from right) after his match winning gaol against Carlton in 1981.
Every encounter since has overflowed with passion, not just a little drama and incident, and plenty of outstanding football to boot, the cues followed from that memorable afternoon on an old VFL battlefield.
Essendon, having been mired in mediocrity for most of the 1970s, had little rivalry with anyone at that stage, certainly not Carlton, which had ritually wiped the floor with the Bombers for years, winning 21 of the previous 26 clashes.
AFL Round 18 Team Analysis
The arrival of Kevin Sheedy as coach changed all that. With his playing career at Richmond having cemented his ill feeling towards the Blues, Sheedy played his Dons like a violin. "We thought the Blues were cocky," former Essendon champion Tim Watson would later recall in a column in The Age.
"A number of our side got on all right with them off the field, but they had rubbed our noses in defeat more than once over the preceding few years. 'Sheeds' would wind us up about their blue blood and born to rule attitude, none of which makes sense today, but we were like putty in his hands."
Carlton, in its first season under coach David Parkin, had, along with Collingwood, set the standard all year. Essendon had ridden a roller coaster, the Bombers losing five of their first six, then turning it all around with a string of consecutive wins which kept mounting.
By the time round 20 loomed, the young Bombers had won 13 in a row, the Carlton clash seen as a huge test and a potential grand final preview, and nearly 37,000 people crammed in to bursting point to see how they'd fare. And for 90 per cent of the afternoon, things didn't go well for them.
The Blues, led by skipper Mike Fitzpatrick in the ruck, Rod Ashman at his feet and with defenders Des English and Geoff Southby resolute, held the edge all day, gradually building their lead.
Carlton appeared to have driven the final nail into the Essendon coffin when Jim Buckley let loose a barrel from outside 50 metres, the lead 26 points at the 20 minute mark of the final term, Buckley triumphantly hoisted aloft by the Blues' Wayne Johnston.
But there was still life in the Dons. First, Roger Merrett marked and goaled. They attacked again and Paul Vander Haar launched himself to mark strongly, adding another. Now came the controversy.
With the Blues desperately trying to run down the clock, Fitzpatrick marked in defence, walked back and waited. And waited. Until umpire Ian Robinson sensationally pinged him for time wasting, a rare free kick indeed, handing the ball to the Bombers.
Fitzpatrick, these days chairman of the AFL Commission,
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"I ignored a couple of leads, certainly I was trying to run the clock down," Fitzpatrick recalled this week. "I thought the worst case was it would be called play on. Then umpire Robinson said: 'I'll have it, please.'
My first thought was that I should just turn around and kick it over the grandstand. It was such an unusual decision."
Only a point resulted from the reversal, but Essendon maintained its momentum and continued to attack. Watson snapped another point, to reduce the gap to 11 points.
Enter Neale Daniher, not having the greatest of afternoons, and switched at three quarter time from defence to attack,
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Neale had already kicked a goal early in the quarter. At the 30 minute mark, he stepped up again, flying sideways into a pack to mark between two Carlton defenders and converting from 30 metres out.
The ball returned to the middle, the time now past 31 minutes. Watson's clearance was smothered and bobbled out towards the wing, where Glenn Hawker paddled it in front of him and threw the ball on his boot.
His tumbled punt landed smack on Daniher's chest, opponent Bruce Doull having slipped while in pursuit. And from a similar distance, Daniher did it again.
The final minute was chaotic. Carlton attacked one last desperate time. Essendon veteran Ron Andrews put his body on the line and was driven into the ground so hard he lost his right boot. It would remain there in the scenes of pandemonium that ensued seconds later after the siren sounded,
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The Blues were stunned, the Essendon players and hordes of fans who flooded the ground euphoric. Watson has spoken to scores over the years who'd made an early getaway to beat the traffic, got to their car radios, then bolted back inside realising they might be missing a piece of history.
"From the club's point of view, it was a coming of age," says Daniher. "It's like with a young, emerging team now. You have to beat a top team to be credible in the eyes of the football world. And no better place to do that on Carlton's own dunghill."
But valuable lessons were learnt on both sides. Harsh reality for Essendon, which would lose Daniher to a serious knee injury the following week, lose its final game in driving rain by eight points to Geelong and with it,
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Sheedy's side would be a hardened outfit indeed when it finally broke the premiership ice three years later.
Carlton, meanwhile, recovered its poise to win its final two games, downed the Cats in the second semi final, and after another scare, Collingwood in the big one.
Fitzpatrick recalls the events of the Essendon game coming in particularly useful as the Blues again tried to soak up time in the last quarter of the grand final.
And Carlton's pride was well and truly pricked, particularly as Essendon continued its winning ways against the Blues, stringing together 10 in a row from 1981 until late in 1985. The Blues would enjoy getting their own back for most of the rest of the decade, winning seven of their next 10 meetings.
From then on, it's often been the underdog that has risen to the challenge, a better indicator than most that this is a game that matters dearly to both clubs.
The Wall