“The first time we played Hawthorn, [Don] Scott kicked me in the ankle and I thought, ‘How do I react to that? Do I get angry or do I ignore him or punch him - I don’t know what to do?’ He was just getting the young kid off-side.” Such was a young Simon Madden’s introduction to Hawthorn in the 1970s.
Madden’s first-up encounter with Scott was the beginning of a fascinating and at times controversial rivalry with the Hawks that would come to define his record-breaking, 378-game career in red and black. Speaking from Windy Hill for the 10th episode of historical podcast Fabric of the Essendon Football Club, Madden recalled how the Essendon-Hawthorn rivalry of the 1980s was the result of two tight-knit clubs, chock full of stars and at the peak of their powers, with both desperate to out-muscle and out-play the other to achieve football immortality. It was one of the greatest, most celebrated eras in the history of both clubs.
“You have great memories and it was a great time. There was a balance of life, because you had a job - even though it was getting harder to do that - and you had football and you had a social life. So, the balance of life was good. It wasn’t contrived, it just happened. We had a lot of people who were about the same age, who were single, had girlfriends or were married but didn’t have kids. So, after a game on a Saturday, it was easy to say, ‘Alright, we’re going out somewhere.’ So, you were actually socialising together as well as playing together - you made strong bonds. So, that combination of 'Sheeds' (coach Kevin Sheedy) being super competitive, wanting to be professional, the talent we had, the group of blokes, the ability to link on the ground and the ability to connect off the ground too, was a great era. It’s great memories.”
In 1980, Essendon hired the first full-time coach in Sheedy. The same year, Hawthorn signed former St Kilda coach Allan Jeans, after he had been overlooked for the Essendon job. Their running feud off the field was as big as the fireworks that took place on the ground, culminating in three memorable Grand Finals and countless newspaper headlines.
In 1983, a dominant Hawthorn side turned in one of the greatest Grand Final performances in history, smashing Essendon by a then-record 83 points. In the opening quarter, Colin Robertson controversially whacked Essendon playmaker Tim Watson. The hit led to the Norm Smith medallist receiving death threats after the game.
Angered by the humiliating loss, Sheedy drove his players hard throughout 1984, earning another crack at Hawthorn in the second semi-final. Although the Hawks won by eight points, the match - which some today still believe was the greatest ever played - gave the Bombers confidence that they could match it with Jeans’s men two weeks later.
By three-quarter time in the Grand Final, however, Hawthorn led by 23 points and appeared on track for a second straight title. Enter Leon Baker. In the opening seconds of the final term, after Madden won the first centre hitout, the dynamic half-forward in Baker snapped a team-lifting goal, then kicked another soon after, as the Bombers - on the back of a number of positional moves by Sheedy - charged home to kick a then-record nine last-quarter goals and win by 24 points. When Madden saw the normally reserved Baker dancing a merry jig, he knew the premiership cup was coming home to Windy Hill.
“Leon Baker, when he kicks the first goal of the last quarter and starts dancing and gets really excited - he was [normally] really calm - I remember thinking, ‘If he’s gonna get excited, I’m getting excited too.’”
When the siren sounded to end a 19-year premiership drought for the Bombers, Madden, in game No.221, was overcome with relief at finally achieving the holy grail.
“The siren goes at the end of the ’84 premiership, you look for a player and the first one’s Tim Watson [in game 167]. You just find a player and hug and just say, ‘Yes, we’ve finally done it.’”
By 1985, Essendon was the VFL’s power club. It lost just three of its 22 games and finished three games clear on top of the ladder. Against Hawthorn in the second semi-final, a 10-goal-to-three second half by the Bombers locked in another Grand Final appearance. While the Hawks remained in touch at three-quarter time of the decider, what ensued in the final quarter was the most dominant last term in Grand Final history. Sheedy’s men amassed 11.3 to just 3.3 as they charged away to win by 78 points. With 22 disposals, 14 marks and 22 hitouts, Madden won the Norm Smith Medal for best on the ground.
“If you look at the history of Hawthorn at that time, they were very good and we beat them twice. So, we must be alright! And to win back-to-back, [which] they (Hawthorn) did in ‘88-89, and Brisbane have done three times (2001-03) and other teams have done it - it’s not easy to keep that momentum. So, to get into ’83 and get beaten by a record score, it’s a credit to Sheeds and the players and the club that we got to ‘84 and won, then ’85 and won.
"The Hawthorn-Essendon era of the ‘80s was just a great rivalry and I had great respect for the Hawthorn club at that time. Even though Sheeds would be building up a hatred against each other, there was this respect as well. I pump up the ‘84-85 side because we were in it, of course, and I’m biased, but the side we were playing against was really, really good.”
There have been many other memorable and, at times, unsavoury, moments whenever Essendon have played Hawthorn. In round eight, 1983, Robert DiPierdomenico delivered a violent elbow to the head of Alan Stoneham, resulting in the Bomber suffering horrific injuries. An all-in brawl broke out and, a few days later, ‘Dipper’ received a five-week suspension.
In 1984, Dipper was at it again when, in the Grand Final, he delivered another sickening elbow to the head of defender Kevin Walsh, who, knocked out, had to be stretchered off the ground. Walsh had the last laugh when he received his premiership medallion.
Twelve months later, in the first quarter of the ’85 decider, a heated melee involving all players broke out on the southern wing after a brief skirmish between Baker and Michael McCarthy. Leigh Matthews belted Bryan Wood who returned the favour, Dermott Brereton, who once planted a kiss on Bill Duckworth and then charged through the Essendon huddle, stuck his knee into Paul Vander Haar, with Channel 7 commentator Peter Landy declaring, “You could book the whole two sides.”
In the 1989 second semi-final, Brereton again ran through Vander Haar with a devastating hip-and-shoulder, forcing the Bomber to miss the preliminary final.
Sheedy certainly did his best to stoke the flames when, during the 1984 finals, he questioned Hawthorn’s use of sniffing salts to clear the airways, claiming they might have been illegal substances. Jeans, a policeman, never forgave him. Years later, to promote the ongoing rivalry, Brereton was pictured in the Herald Sun burning an Essendon flag. While done in jest, nothing could have been more enraging to a Bomber supporter.
And who could forget the 'Line in the Sand' game from round 11, 2004, when Hawthorn, sick of being overpowered by Essendon, came out all guns blazing after half-time. Essendon won the match by 74 points, but a statement had been made that enough was enough. That day, some 18 players were reported on 26 charges. Richie Vandenberg (six weeks), Lance Picioane (four) and Campbell Brown (four) all received suspensions and were fined a total of $13,200, Simon Beaumont copped a one-match ban, and there were a further $23,500 in fines dished out to Hawthorn players. For Essendon, Justin Murphy copped one match and there was a total of $34,000 in fines shared between eight players.
The Bombers face their own line-in-the-sand game this weekend, so how fitting that they face Hawthorn where, surely, another fascinating chapter will be added to the long-running rivalry between the two clubs.
For Madden, those memories of the 1980s will never fade. Like many Essendon players from that era, that they survived and conquered those mighty Hawthorn teams remains a badge of honour to always be proud of.
“I’ve always said, ‘If you don’t understand the struggle, you’ll never understand the success.’ [The disappointment of] ‘83’s okay, because you made amends in ‘84-85.”
Fabric of the Essendon Football Club is a weekly 20-episode series powered by Liberty, featuring in-depth chats between club historian Dan Eddy and 20 of the club’s most adored names across multiple decades. You can listen via Spotify, Apple Podcasts and Google Podcasts.
