Premiership-winning Bomber Chris Heffernan has provided a fascinating insight into the mentality of the outstanding team that dominated the 2000 season.

Heffernan is being honoured as this week’s Bomber Legend and said the brilliant team rarely stopped to enjoy the remarkable year.

“Although winning was great, in some ways it was actually a very unenjoyable year, because we were just so focused,” Heffernan said.

“We wouldn’t read anything, wouldn’t enjoy anything, didn’t sing the song.”

The Bombers dropped just one game and ran away with the flag in a 60-point thumping of Melbourne in the Grand Final, but Heffernan said there was an overwhelming feeling of “relief more than enjoyment” throughout the victorious season after just falling short in the 1999 preliminary final.

“We were starting to realise that these things are hard and we’re good enough to win this. We let one go last year, this is our best chance in history,” he said.

“Everything just fell into place. That’s why we were just like, ‘Wow, everything went wrong for us last year – we lost a prelim that we probably could have won – let’s just not let this one go’.”

Heffernan was an important pillar in the side’s midfield for a number of years, finishing with 170 senior games including a three-year stint at Melbourne, but he admitted the weakest link of his flag-winning side was its midfield.

“In my mind, we probably had the best forward line assembled. The forward line was just off the charts, it was just unstoppable.

“The backline was hard and very good, and the midfield when you look at it was clearly the weakest area.

“But what it was is it was one of the first teams to have a deep midfield.”

Heffernan knew entering the season-deciding match that he would be given a tough task; contain Melbourne’s in-form midfielder Shane Woewodin coming off the back of Brownlow Medal success during the week.

“I just went out there and thought, ‘Shane Woewodin is more important to Melbourne than I am to Essendon…so if he doesn’t play well, they’re going to really struggle to win’,” Heffernan said.

“He’d had a big year and if he had a break-out 30 touches and kicked two or three they could win.”

While he says his Grand Final performance “wouldn’t even be in the top half of the games that I played”, there is no doubt that his job on the star Demon – who was kept goalless from 19 disposals – is one of Heffernan’s career-defining performances in the eyes of many.

Sadly, Heffernan was unable to remain a one-club player, being forced out of the club due to a salary cap issue that led to his three years with his former Grand Final opponents from 2003 to 2005.

He admitted “it was pretty crushing”, but when the opportunity to return to the Bombers presented itself, Heffernan had no hard feelings.

“There was no point in me cracking the shits. It happened, I had a great time at Essendon, things got stuffed up and I had to leave – that was fine,” he said.

“I still felt like I had a strong connection to Essendon and I hadn’t burnt any bridges there.

“I’m very glad I did, I’m really glad I got a chance to go back.”

And he didn’t look back. Further stints at the club after retirement as a runner and a director on Essendon’s board followed to solidify Heffernan’s position as a true Bomber Legend.

You can see more from Heffernan’s interview with Rohan Connolly in the video above, or you can listen to the interview in full via the podcast below.