Essendon went tall at the 2020 national draft. (From left): Zach Reid, Josh Eyre, Cody Brand and Nik Cox. Photos: AFL MEDIA

As the old saying goes, if at first you don’t succeed, try, try again.

And in Essendon’s case, you certainly can’t blame it for enshrining that maxim in its drafting strategy earlier this month.

Fifteen years ago, the Bombers embarked on a “spine first” recruiting policy, which saw them select Paddy Ryder in 2005, Cale Hooker and Tom Bellchambers in 2007, Michael Hurley in 2008, and Jake Carlisle and Stewart Crameri in 2009.

That five-year window spanned a barren period for the club (that has now extended to almost two decades) which yielded only one finals appearance – a 96-point shellacking at the hands of Adelaide in 2009.

In fact, since that nightmarish evening at Football Park 11 years ago, Essendon has featured in four more finals, all of which have ended in defeat, meaning its finals losing streak is now six games and dates back to 2004.

But what the club understood during that initial period was that if you start looking to the future and begin laying down the foundation blocks of your next team, success might not be too far away.

In 2013, the planets (at least on-field) aligned and everything seemingly came together for the Bombers as they managed to assemble arguably their strongest team since their grand final years of 2000-01.

With Ryder, Hooker, Hurley, Carlisle, Bellchambers and Crameri teaming up with an already-established superstar in Dustin Fletcher, Essendon had young quality talls all over the park, ensuring its “skeleton” was in place.

And with the likes of Jobe Watson, Brendon Goddard, Dyson Heppell, Michael Hibberd and David Zaharakis in their best 22, the Bombers had some of the finest cuts of meat added to their bones. After winning 13 of their first 16 games, they were playing for top spot against eventual premier Hawthorn in round 18.

But, of course, we all know how the story of 2013 ended for Essendon. As a result of an unprecedented, self-inflicted catastrophe that was their ill-fated drugs program, the Dons crashed and burned in the final month of the home-and-away season, largely as a result of the immense media scrutiny they were under, and were eventually booted out of the finals series by the AFL.

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That squad certainly looked like it had what it took to challenge for a top-four spot and go deep into a September campaign, but we’ll never know just how good that team could have been, their potential never fulfilled and lost to the sands of time.

It wouldn’t be surprising in the slightest if that nagging “what if” sensation from seven years ago played some role, conscious or otherwise, in Essendon’s decision to go extremely tall at the 2020 draft and adopt a similar “spine first” approach as it is clearly looking to dramatically renovate its list, if not rebuild from the ground up.

With Joe Daniher, Bellchambers and Shaun McKernan all departing Tullamarine this year, as well as untried pair Noah Gown and Henry Crauford, on top of Mitch Brown and Michael Hartley 12 months ago, the Bombers lost a lot of depth in their key position stocks in a short period of time.

So it came as little surprise when the Dons selected Nik Cox (200 centimetres), Zach Reid (202), Josh Eyre (199) and Cody Brand (196) on draft night a few weeks after recruiting former Gold Coast forward Peter Wright (203) – five players whose average height is 200 centimetres.

The Bombers have added them to a list that features Sam Draper, Brandon Zerk-Thatcher, Patrick Ambrose, Aaron Francis and James Stewart, untried trio Harry Jones, Nick Bryan and Cian McBride, along with Hurley, Hooker and Andrew Phillips, who are in the twilight of their careers.

So not only will pressure for key position spots in the team be ramped up, but there is now more than enough tall talent on the list for the Bombers to work out who will be the club’s next Ryder, Hooker, Hurley, Carlisle, Bellchambers and Crameri, and potentially take Essendon to within striking distance of a top-four spot within the next five to 10 years.

And without the distraction of a prolonged and gargantuan scandal this time around, Essendon’s top brass will be quietly hopeful that its newest crop of giants can finish the job that their predecessors in 2013 weren’t able to.