The season came down to one game.
Essendon and Hawthorn battled it out in Round 22 of the 2009 season, with the winner set to take the final spot in the top eight.
At half time, it seemed like the Hawks would be the team to win through to the finals action.
Despite the absences of Lance Franklin and Jarryd Roughead the reigning premier led by 22 points, with Sam Mitchell running amok.
Essendon Captain Matthew Lloyd carried an injury into the game and admits he probably shouldn’t have played.
But he knew he was going to retire and didn’t want to bow out on the sidelines.
His impact in the first half had been minimal and the three time Coleman Medal winner bore the brunt of the coach's half-time talk.
“We just played with no life. I’d had four disposals and was playing terribly,” he told Mike Sheahan’s on Fox Footy’s Open Mike.
“Matthew Knights just ripped the paint off the walls with his spray – a lot of it directed at me about my performance.”
As the players returned to the field for the second half, Lloyd remembers teammate Nathan Lovett-Murray encouraging him to focus on applying pressure in the forward line.
“So I started at the top of the square … my goal was for the ball to be hit to Sam Mitchell (at the centre bounce) and I’d hit him with a bone crunching tackle,” Lloyd said.
“It just happened that Mark McVeigh won the clearance … and I made the decision to hip and shoulder (Brad Sewell) down the front, I didn’t want to make head contact and unfortunately hit his cheekbone.
“I wanted to play finals the next week so the last thing I wanted to do was throwaway the last chance I had of playing.”
A melee involving most players on the ground ensued.
When it broke up, the two teams formed their own huddles.
As the Hawks hurled insults at their rivals, Lloyd was in a daze as the realisation set in that he was playing his last AFL game.
Mark McVeigh addressed the group: ‘that was unbelievable, the Captain has just made a statement, let’s back him up, protect him and go on and win this game’.
And that is exactly what they did.
The Bombers kicked five goals in the third quarter and six in the last, including four goals to a 19 year old Michael Hurley, to run out 17 point winners.
“I never wanted that to happen to Brad Sewell but the response that action caused for my team I’m proud of,” Lloyd said.
Lloyd was handed a six-week penalty that was reduced to four with an early plea.
He was by his pregnant wife’s side as the Bombers flew to Adelaide and lost their Elimination Final.
When the players returned to Melbourne, Lloyd met them at a local pub.
Throughout the day a group of Hawthorn players arrived.
“I looked at the door and there was Jordan Lewis, Stewie Dew, Luke Hodge and they were all walking towards me,” Lloyd said.
“Tom Bellchambers said to me ‘we’re here for you if anything breaks out’.”
Unlike a fortnight earlier, there would be no violence on this occasion.
Hodge shook hands with Lloyd just as Sewell had done straight after the game.
The fight was over. But the Essendon and Hawthorn rivalry remains.
