Essendon skipper Terry Daniher sets himself to kick off the ground in the Western Oval wet in 1984. Picture: CHANNEL 7

This is a tough stage of the footy season, with the weather factor frequently coming into play, cold and wet conditions another challenge.

Not quite as big a challenge as they used to be, though, back in the days when stadiums didn’t have a roof and surfaces weren’t as well manicured. Some of us oldies would argue there used to be a lot more rain, too.

Or so it seemed much of the time in the winter slog, whether one was a player or a fan stuck in the outer desperately trying to stay warm and dry.

And it just so happens this weekend is the 40th anniversary of a Saturday afternoon that still evokes strong memories in the minds of those who were there (and the teenaged version of me was one of them).

So much so that on 3AW Football last Saturday, when we opened up the lines for people to talk about their coldest, wettest experiences at the football, this game was the subject of most of the calls.

It was Saturday July 28, 1984, and Footscray took on Essendon at a Western Oval on a day the cold bit deep and rain never relented for even a second. At least half the players on the ground opted for long sleeves. And to say goals were hard to come by is something of an understatement.

Indeed, come half-time of this incredible game, not even one goal had been scored, the Bulldogs and Bombers trudging into the rooms with the scores locked on 0.7 (7) each.

“Yet the football lovers were enjoying it,” reported The Age. “The struggle was tough and closely fought. The lack of goals was a tribute to the endeavour of these sides, coached by two of the toughest men to come out of Richmond (Kevin Sheedy and Mick Malthouse).”

Finally, two minutes into the third quarter, Essendon broke the deadlock through first-year Bomber star Mark Harvey. And the ice finally broken, metaphorically if not literally on this coldest of days, more goals would follow to Alan Ezard and Kevin Walsh.

With Footscray still stuck on 0.8 (8) come three-quarter time, Essendon’s 19-point lead might as well have been closer to 10 goals on a dry day. But this, as had already been established, was no ordinary afternoon.

Remarkably, when rover Brian Royal snapped the Bulldogs’ first goal of the game at the 11-minute mark of the final term, Footscray, having by now racked up 12 behinds, trailed by only nine points.

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Just two minutes later, a long way out and from what seemed an impossible angle, key forward John Bennett threaded another goal, the margin now just three points. And in their very next attack, Bennett wheeled on to his left foot and snapped his second goal.

Almost unbelievably, after failing to kick a goal for three-and-a-half quarters, Footscray had kicked three in three minutes and was now in front as the sodden home crowd exploded with delight.

Essendon coach Sheedy then gambled on returning star on-baller Tim Watson to the fray despite the fact he’d limped off in the second quarter, seemingly not to return.

“The return of Watson’s dash was a telling factor in lifting Essendon,” said The Age. “He used his amazing speed to break away from the pack, despite his sore leg, and pass magnificently to Peter Bradbury in the forward line.”

Bradbury, who along with mature age first-year recruit Leon Baker, had been the Bombers’ best all afternoon, took the mark 25 metres out, went back and slotted what 18 minutes into the quarter, would end up being the final goal of the game, Essendon players jubilant when the siren finally heralded a two-point win, 4.10 (34) to 3.14 (32).


Peter Bradbury marks near goal with Essendon trailing late in the game. Picture: CHANNEL 7

On “World of Sport” the next day, former champion full-forward Peter McKenna bemoaned what he called both sides’ failure to deal adequately with the conditions, and Footscray’s late decision to leave out WA spearhead Simon Beasley.

“It absolutely amazes me to think that a player who has kicked 100 goals in WA has to wait until Saturday to find out if he’s going to be playing, and then he doesn’t play in the seconds to get wet weather experience, because obviously they think he can’t play in the wet,” McKenna said.

“I would regard that as an absolute insult, and I wouldn’t be hanging around Footscray too long if I was dropped out every second week.”

Fortunately for the Bulldogs, Beasley took his late omission on the chin and hung around, booting 100 goals the following season, and ending up the club’s greatest goalkicker.

Essendon’s win put the Bombers back on top of the ladder, a position they would not surrender for the next 18 months. McKenna’s best-on-ground that sodden afternoon, Bomber centreman Baker, would go on to play another match-winning role in a far more important victory on grand final day two months later.

The rest of us, meanwhile, just had a bit of thawing out and drying off to do when we got home.

This article first appeared at ESPN.