A jubilant James Hird hugs Essendon fan Drew Wilson after kicking the winning goal against West Coast in 2004. Photo: GETTY IMAGES
Most footy fans go along to a game simply hoping to watch their team get a win. If they’re lucky, they might be privy to a stellar individual effort as well as a victory.
But it’s only once in a lifetime they’ll see their team win a classic, a star pull out a performance for the ages, and then get an emotional hug from that player after he wins the game off his own boat.
It was 20 years ago this round, Easter time in round three 2004, that Essendon fan Drew Wilson became inadvertently caught up in one of the modern game’s great moments, an incident so iconic it’s not only still replayed frequently, but became immortalised as a cultural meme a few years back when it became the subject of a Toyota “Legendary Moments” TV commercial.
Even that, though, was merely the exclamation point on a dramatic week for Essendon champion and captain James Hird, who delivered one of his greatest games with the threat of de-registration hanging over his head after scathing criticism of a field umpire.
Hird’s Bombers had got off to a poor 0-2 start when the skipper, making a regular appearance on “The Footy Show” teed off on umpire Scott McLaren, calling him a “disgrace”.
“That was on the Wednesday night, because it was Easter, and by the Thursday morning there was a media circus in front of my house,” Hird told an Essendon club podcast in 2020.
“I remember calling (AFL boss) Andrew Demetriou on Good Friday to apologise. I rang him four or five times and finally got on to him, and when I spoke to him that afternoon, I realised how serious my mistake was. He was very, very short and expressed that there was a good chance that I’d be deregistered for the next four or five weeks.”
Hird would later write: “I was upset and exhausted. It was all I could think about. I felt that if I played well, I would insulate myself a little from the criticism. I felt a huge weight of responsibility.”
I did the boundary role for radio 3AW that night of Easter Saturday as Essendon took on a fierce rival in West Coast, and it’s fair to say there was even a little extra spice that evening about a contest that seldom lacked an edge in any case.
The souped-up Bombers couldn’t have started any better, with eight goals straight to no score in the first 19 minutes of play to lead by a whopping 48 points. But the Eagles suddenly found their mojo.
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They kicked the last three goals of the quarter, outscored the Dons in the second, and by half-time had pulled the deficit back to only 14 points. The third term was high octane end-to-end football, with Essendon adding another six goals, but West Coast eight to momentarily grab the lead.
At three-quarter time, the Bombers led by a solitary point. “I was having an all right game, but not a great one,” Hird said. He’d soon remedy that, his final term delivering 15 disposals, six clearances and two goals.
With scores level, Hird’s final centre bounce clearance drove the ball forward to give Essendon one last chance to break the deadlock. He moved towards the contest.
A ball-up ensued in the Bombers’ forward pocket, the time clock at 30 minutes 40 seconds. David Hille’s tackle on West Coast star Chris Judd jolted the ball free, where Essendon small man Marc Bullen dived full length and scooped out a handball to Hird. And from about 30 metres out on a tight angle, his right foot snap sailed through to one of the loudest roars heard at the Docklands stadium.
Like most of those present (including us media folk), Drew Wilson leapt to his feet in adulation. Next thing he knew, the man responsible for that had wrapped him up in a passionate embrace.
“I’m looking at the goal and watching the ball go through and I’ve jumped out of my seat, and turned around, and there he was, wanting to give me a hug,” Wilson told 3AW last year.
Hird would later reflect: “I instantly thought: ‘We’ve won the game!’ I was running towards the boundary, and was so excited that when I saw the bloke on the edge of the crowd, I just hugged him. God knows why I hugged him. I suppose it was like a pressure valve being released – out poured the emotion.”
There was plenty to go around. Among the jubilant Essendon players, in the crowd, even the commentary box. “The fairytale complete after a horror week! James Hird you are a genius!” roared Stephen Quartermain, calling the game for Channel 10.
Just 20 seconds later, the siren sounded. Essendon had won by six points an absolute thriller in which no fewer than 42 goals were kicked.
Hird would not be de-registered, instead fined $20,000 publicly apologizing to McLaren. And Bomber fan Wilson, who to this day still occupies the same reserved seat behind the Latrobe Street end goals, also became a little part of football history, his framed, autographed photo of that famous moment now a prized possession.
“It was, and remains, the biggest shock of my life,” he says.
This article first appeared at ESPN.
