Mark Harvey knew what he wanted to say to Kevin Sheedy when he walked into his office. 

It was 1997 and for Mark Harvey, it was time to retire.

But Kevin Sheedy had other ideas.

The pair had shared in three premierships together. Sheedy was the only AFL/VFL Coach Harvey had known.

But in ’97, things weren’t going to plan for Harvey, Sheedy and the Bombers.

Injuries had decimated the team. Harvey was feeling the effects of his 206 game career and the side was out of finals contention.

“Not a lot of things were going our way earlier in the year,” Harvey said.

“From a win/loss point of view we were losing a lot more than we were winning.

“At that particular stage, ‘Sheeds’ was playing a lot of younger players.

“I turned 32 midway through the season and I was struggling to deal with performance, therefore I was inconsistent.

“It was really challenging for me personally as to whether I was going to play or retire.” 

Sheedy was going to reach his 400^th game as Essendon Coach in round 22 – the last game of the season.

So he made a deal with Harvey – train hard and he’d pick his loyal defender for that last match against Adelaide.

Harvey liked that idea and when he led the team on to the field for his farewell game, there was a packed Princes Park crowd in attendance to say goodbye.

Despite the encouragement of the large Bombers crowd, it was Adelaide that made the early running.

The Crows were in front by 31 points at half time, but Harvey said a collision between Gary Moorcroft and Peter Vardy changed the momentum of the match.

“After half time Moorcroft came in pretty quickly off the square for that first centre bounce,” Harvey said.

“He hit Peter Vardy and it just changed the mood of the Adelaide players – he really hurt him.

“They were obviously starting to think about finals the next week.

“But all of a sudden it was the thrill of the chase for our young players and confidence and momentum can swing really quickly.”

Led by a 19-year-old Matthew Lloyd (five goals) and a 22-year-old Che Cockatoo-Collins (five goals) the Bombers kicked seven goals in the third term to draw within a point of the Crows.

There were nine goals kicked in the last quarter. Fortunately for Harvey, Essendon kicked five of them to record a four-point win.

“It was just a phenomenal way to finish your career and it was a great tribute to the Coach and how he sent away his players,” he said.

“I’ve had so many people – mostly Essendon people – come up to me and say they were there at that game.

“If you want a send off, that was it.

“It will forever be [embedded] in my memory.”