I want you to imagine just for a moment being
completely immersed in a live sporting event.
Oh, well, okay. Yeah. Picture yourself sitting
in the sprawling stands of a colossal stadium
surrounded by, I mean, over 42 ,000 screaming
fans. That is a lot of noise. It is. The crisp
winter air is biting, but you hardly even notice
it because the tension on the field is just so
thick. Right. So incredibly heavy that the actual
game unfolding on the grass in front of you suddenly
becomes, well, entirely secondary. It stops being
about the score. Exactly. It stops being about
points on a scoreboard. It transforms right before
your eyes into a boiling physical vendetta. Yeah,
a real clash. Welcome to this deep dive. Today
we are exploring one of the most infamous chaotic
spectacles in the history of Australian rules
football. The Lion in the Sand, Matt. The Lion
in the Sand. We're examining the 2004 clash between
two fierce rivals, the Hawthorne Hawks and the
Essendon Bombers. And whether you follow the
sport religiously or you're just someone fascinated
by the psychology of sports rivalries and enforcer
culture. And there's a lot of psychology there.
Oh, tons. This deep dive into the Hawthorne versus
Essendon brawl will leave you... you with plenty
of aha moments. It's going to leave you completely
captivated. It truly is a remarkable case study
in how pressure and pride can completely short
circuit professional discipline. Absolutely.
Our primary source for this session is a highly
detailed historical breakdown of this round 11
match, which took place at the Melbourne Cricket
Ground. Commonly known as the MCG. Right, the
MCG, on June 5th, 2004. And for those who aren't
familiar, the MCG is a legendary stadium. Just
a true coliseum of world sports. Massive venue.
The goal of our deep dives today is to really
examine how a surprisingly lopsided, seemingly
standard footy match spiraled entirely out of
control into a sprawling five -minute street
fight. Involving almost every player on the ground.
Yeah, almost every one. But we also want to look
at the severe ripple effects this single violent
afternoon had on both of these organizations
for the next decade. OK, let's unpack this by
stepping back in time a little bit, because to
understand why things exploded so violently in
2004, we have to look at the bad blood that had
been simmering for a really long time. It was
a long time. How far back does this animosity
actually go? Well, you have to rewind to the
1980s to find the real roots of this hostility.
The 80s. During that decade, the Hawthorne Football
Club was experiencing an absolute golden era.
To give you a sense of their dominance in what
was then the VFL. The Victorian Football League,
right? Exactly. The VFL, which later expanded
into the national AFL we know today. Hawthorne
made every single grand final from 1983 to 1989.
Wow. And then again in 1991. Making a championship
game seven years in a row is I mean, that's an
absurd level of sustained excellence in any sport.
It really is unparalleled. They won five premierships,
which is the Australian rules term for winning
the championship title in that specific window.
Incredible. But here is the crucial sticking
point for our story today. They came up against
Essendon three times during that incredible run.
Ah, OK. In 83, 84 and 85, right? You got it.
Hoffman took the first one. But then what happened
in those next two? Well, Essendon delivered these
stinging. Back -to -back grand final victories
over Hawthorne in 1984 and 1985. Ouch. Yeah.
And the style of play back in that era is a vital
piece of context here. Throughout the 1980s,
the sport was incredibly raw. Players wore very
little padding, if any at all. Just brutal. And
both of these clubs played a bruising, attacking
brand of football. It was an era where biffs,
bumps, and outright physical brawls were just
a regular, almost expected feature when these
two teams met. Just part of the game. Exactly.
That historical context established a deep -seated
baseline of physical intimidation and, frankly,
mutual disrespect between the two clubs. So there's
this lingering shadow of 1980s brutality hanging
over them. But let's jump forward to the lead
-up to this specific match on June 5, 2004. Right.
The dynamic between the two clubs had shifted
drastically by then, hadn't it? Completely flipped.
Moving into the 1990s and the early 2000s, Essendon
had essentially become the bullies of the competition.
They were the top dogs. Yeah. They won premierships
in 1993 and 2000, and they had built a staggeringly
dominant record over Hawthorne. How dominant
are we talking? Well, going into round 11 of
the 2004 season. Essendon had won nine of the
previous ten meetings between the two clubs.
Nine out of ten. And they weren't just edging
them out in close games. They were crushing Hawthorne
by an average margin of 39 points per game. Man.
To put that into perspective for anyone new to
the sport, a 39 -point average margin means Essendon
was basically treating Hawthorne like a training
drill. Very much. They were completely outclassing
them. And the league standings reflected that
reality. In Australian rules football, the standings
are referred to as the ladder. Going into this
match, Essendon was a top four contender sitting
near the very top of the ladder with a 7 -3 win
-loss record. They were heavy, undeniable favorites.
Undeniable. Hawthorne, on the other hand, was
sitting at the absolute bottom of the ladder.
They had only managed two paltry wins for the
entire season up to that point. Oof. So you have
a proud club, Hawthorne, being consistently battered
on the scoreboard, facing a team that has physically
and mentally intimidated them for a solid decade.
They are the clear underdogs. Which brings us
to halftime of the 2004 match. Essendon is leading
comfortably. The Hawthorne players trudge down
into the locker room, exhausted and losing yet
again. What exactly happened down there to change
the entire trajectory of the afternoon? This
is where verified history and locker room mythology
kind of intersect. Hawthorne had a club director
named Dermot Brereton. OK. Now, Brereton was
not just a suit. He was a star player, an absolute
legend for the Hawks during those brutal 1980s
clashes we just talked about. Oh, he knows the
history firsthand. Oh, deeply. He was known for
his toughness. Yeah. So Brereton decides to address
the players in the locker room. It was widely
reported that he specifically directed the players
to, quote, draw a line in the sand, end quote,
and take a physical stand against the bombers.
Basically telling them to. That was the unmistakable
message. Now, Britton later denied using the
exact phrase, draw a line in the sand, but he
fully admitted to advising the senior players
to not stand for any physical intimidation that
Essendon might try to impose on them in the second
half. He admitted that. Yes. His exact admitted
phrasing was telling them to fly the flag for
yourself. Fly the flag. What's fascinating here
is the psychology of the enforcer mindset. And
how past dominance by one team can create an
intense psychological pressure cooker for the
underdog. Right. When a group of professional
athletes feels humiliated, not just losing points,
but feeling physically bullied over a span of
years, the frustration compounds. Eventually,
the primary goal of the game shifts. It's no
longer about winning. Exactly. It stops being
about executing strategy to win the match, and
it devolves into a desperate need to reclaim
respect and dignity by any means necessary. That
psychological pressure cooker blew its lid almost
immediately. I want to understand the play -by
-play of how this erupted, because the sequence
of events is just surreal. It's intense. We are
in the first two minutes of the third quarter.
The teams are back on the field. Hawthorne's
Mark Williams kicks a goal, cutting the Essendon
lead down to 26 points. What happens next? Walk
me through that moment. After a goal is scored,
the ball is taken back to the middle of the field
for a center bounce to restart play. Like a tip
-off in basketball. Right, but far more chaotic,
with players crashing into each other to win
the ball out of the air. The ball goes down,
and players are vigorously trying to gain possession
in what's called a stoppage, a congested area
of play. Okay, lots of bodies. Essendon's Mark
Johnson attempts to join this stoppage, but he
is forcefully, aggressively removed by a number
of Hawthorne players. This wasn't just a standard
bump to clear space, was it? Not at all. It was
intensely aggressive, and it immediately led
to wrestling and what are known as jumper punches.
Jumper punches. Yeah, this is a tactic where
a player grabs the thick collar or fabric of
an opponent's jersey, their jumper. and uses
that grip as leverage to throw short, sharp punches
to the chest or face. Suddenly, out of nowhere,
you have approximately 16 giant athletes tangled
up in a wrestling match right in the center square.
Unbelievable. The television commentators noted
on the broadcast that the spirit was bubbling
over a little. Bubbling over turned out to be
the understatement of the decade. Let's look
at the catalyst that turned this from a scuffle
into a riot. Okay. A free kick is awarded to
Hawthorne. They kick it forward, but Essendon's
Mark Bolton intercepts it. Bolton clears the
ball along the southern side of the ground, aiming
for his teammate, Jason Winderlich. Paint a picture
of what happens to Winderlich here. In Australian
rules, catching a kicked ball that has traveled
over 15 meters is called taking a mark. If you
take a mark, you earn a free kick and the play
stops. Got it. But leaping into the air to catch
a ball. leaves a player incredibly vulnerable
because their eyes are locked on the sky, not
on the defenders running at them. Winderlich
attempts to take a mark close to the ground.
As he does, Hawthorne's chance Bateman comes
charging in and delivers a devastating knock.
The reports suggest it was a knee or a hip connecting
directly with Winderlich's head. A completely
brutal hit. It was. A free kick is awarded to
Winderlich, but he is badly split open. He's
bleeding profusely and has to be forced from
the ground under the blood rule. Which means?
The blood rule mandates that any bleeding player
must leave the field immediately to receive medical
attention. And the sight of their teammate bleeding
on the grass is the exact moment the match descends
into total unhinged chaos? Complete chaos. We
aren't talking about a little push and shove
anymore. The sources describe a sprawling, violent
scene erupting on the Great Southern Stand side
of the center square. Can you elaborate on the
scale of this? It is hard to overstate how surreal
this looked on television. You have elite professional
athletes abandoning the ball entirely. Just forgetting
the game completely. Players are tackling each
other to the turf, throwing heavy, closed -fist
punches, wrestling intensely, and dragging each
other by the Guernseys. Who is starting it? The
sources specifically highlight Hawthorne's Richie
Vandenberg and Lance Pcioin as being particularly
active aggressors in this initial explosion.
And Essendon didn't back down. No, they were
immediately met by Essendon's Adam McPhee, Mark
Johnson, and Justin Murphy, who were more than
eager to retaliate. The visual of this is wild.
A professional sporting event simply stopped.
You have trainers whose job is to hand out water
and tape ankles rushing onto the field, desperately
trying to physically drag their own massive players
away from the opposition. It reached a point
of absolute absurdity. Essendon's head physiotherapist,
a man named Bruce Connor, literally had to restrain
his own player, Adam McPhee. The physio was restraining
the player? Yes. Connor had to physically battle
McPhee and give him marching orders off the field
just to treat a bleeding gash above his eye.
But amidst all of this sprawling chaos, there
is one specific incident that the sources point
to as the most shocking. And it happened while
Jason Winderlich... The player whose head injury
sparked this whole thing was being helped off
the ground. Yeah, this was bad. What did Campbell
Brown do? So Winderlich is being supported by
trainers. He's clearly dazed, bleeding, and defenseless,
slowly making his way toward the bench. Right.
As he's walking off, Hawthorne's Campbell Brown
runs past and strikes him. Hitting a wounded,
escorted player is crossing a massive line, even
in a brawl. It sent shockwaves through the stadium.
Matthew Lloyd, the star Essendon forward, would
later describe Brown's strike as one of the most
disgusting things I've seen on a football field.
That's a strong statement. Very. And the Channel
10 commentators were in absolute disbelief. They
were calling it the 1980s revisited. They said
it was unbelievable, noting that they hadn't
seen those sort of scenes for a long time in
AFL football. It was a five -minute melee that
completely hijacked the sport. What does this
all mean for the actual match once the dust final
settled? Eventually, the umpires managed to separate
the players and restore some semblance of order.
But how did the two teams respond to the violence
once the whistle blew to resume play? While Hawthorne
might have felt they won the physical fight,
or at least prove they could fly the flag like
Brereton asks, Essendon absolutely won the mental
battle. They didn't lose focus. Not at all. They
managed to regain their composure remarkably
well. After the brawl, they punished Hawthorne
in the most effective way possible. On the scoreboard.
Best revenge. Exactly. They kicked nine of the
next ten goals, extending their lead to 74 points
for three -quarter time. To channel all that
adrenaline back into clinical scoring is impressive.
I see here that Essendon maintained that heavy
margin to win the game. They kicked 24 goals
and 10 behinds. That's right. For our international
listeners, a goal is worth six points, and a
behind which is when the ball misses the main
post but goes through the outer posts is worth
one point. So Essendon scored a total of 154
points to Hawthorne's 80. And Matthew Lloyd.
The Essendon player, who was so visibly disgusted
by Campbell Brown's actions, answered in the
best way possible for a forward. He kicked an
incredible seven -goal haul in that match. But
the final siren was really just the beginning
of the story. You can't have a 16 -player street
fight on national television without the league
stepping in. Oh, definitely not. The very next
week, the AFL Tribunal essentially turned into
a chaotic courtroom. The tribunal is the league's
judicial system for handling on -field offenses.
And on the 8th and 9th of June, it was a bloodbath.
I can imagine. A record 18 players faced a completely
unprecedented 26 charges. Some were reported
on the field by the umpires, others were cited
by the video reports officer, and some came from
a dedicated investigation by the AFL's investigations
officer. Let's look at the damage for Hawthorne
first because they took the brunt of the suspensions.
Richard Vandenberg was hit incredibly hard. He
was suspended for three matches for striking
Adam McPhee and another three matches for kneeing
McPhee. That's a severe six -match suspension
for one player. Lance PCN was suspended for four
matches for striking. Campbell Brown, for his
infamous strike on the injured Winderlich, was
also suspended for four matches. And Simon Beaumont
got one match for misconduct. So that is four
Hawthorne players suspended for a combined total
of 15 matches. Did Essendon escape the tribunal
entirely? Not quite. Essendon's Justin Murphy
was suspended for one match for headbutting Simon
Beaumont. Headbutting, wow. Yeah. In total, across
both teams, five players were suspended for 16
matches. But the financial penalty is what really
highlights the sheer scale of the league's anger.
Players involved in the melee were fined a combined
total of $70 ,700. $70 ,700. That was the highest
amount distributed from a single match in the
history of the sport. The tribunal chairman didn't
mince his words either. He stated that the brawl
brought football into disrepute. The AFL was
sending a very clear, very expensive message
that this sort of 1980s -style street fight had
no place in the modern professional game. The
immediate aftermath is severe. I'm looking at
the stats for the rest of that year, and the
2004 season is effectively ruined for both teams.
Hawthorne only won four games the entire year.
They barely avoided the wooden spoon, which is
the dreaded unofficial title given to the team
that finishes dead last. And nobody wants that.
No. They only avoided it by having a slightly
better percentage than the Richmond Tigers, meaning
their ratio of points scored versus points allowed
was just fractionally less terrible. And while
Essendon won the match and finished much higher
on the ladder, the Brawl didn't propel them to
glory either. They seemed to lose their momentum
entirely. Did they? Yeah, they only won four
more matches in the regular season. They limped
into the playoffs in eighth place and were knocked
out by Guilong in the second week. Here's where
it gets really interesting. You would think that
this match cemented Essendon's dominance and
Hawthorne's misery for the foreseeable future.
You'd think so. But the ultimate irony of the
line in the sand match is that it marks the exact
point where the fortunes of these two clubs completely
flipped. Tell me about this role reversal. It
is a stunning shift in momentum. Let's look at
Essendon first. Following the 2004 season, they
plummeted down the ladder. In 2005, they dropped
to 13th place, missing the playoffs for the first
time since 1997. Wow. In fact, they wouldn't
win another final series for years, and they
went on a miserable losing streak against Hawthorne
from 2005 all the way to 2009. Wait, so Hawthorne
goes from being battered physically and on the
scoreboard finishing second to last to suddenly
dominating the rivalry. Yes. How did they turn
that rock bottom? a moment around. They used
the embarrassment of 2004 as a foundation to
completely rebuild their culture. They hired
a new visionary coach named Alistair Clarkson.
Under Clarkson, they started a steady climb.
They reached the semifinals in 2007, won the
premiership in 2008, and then launched a historic
dynasty, winning three consecutive premierships
in 2013, 2014, and 2015. That is staggering.
But the rivalry itself wasn't dead, was it? It
was just lying dormant, waiting for another spark.
Just waiting. And that spark came half a decade
later. Round 22, 2009. Both teams are battling
for eighth place on the ladder, desperate to
make the playoffs. And we get the violent sequel
to 2004. Set the scene for me. Essendon's captain
at this time is Matthew Lloyd. The same Matthew
Lloyd. The exact same Matthew Lloyd, who was
so disgusted by Hawthorne's violence five years
prior. During this 2009 game, Lloyd had received
a vicious halftime spray from his coach, which
is essentially a locker room dressing down where
the coach screams at the players for poor performance.
Okay, so he's fired up. Very. Lloyd wanted to
make a statement against Hawthorne, who were
the reigning 2008 premiers. So the roles are
totally reversed. Hawthorne are the champions.
Essendon are the frustrated team trying to prove
themselves. Exactly. At the start of the third
quarter, Lloyd runs off the line and delivers
a brutal head -high shirt front to Hawthorne
midfielder Brad Sewell. A shirt front is an incredibly
aggressive front -on physical bump. It's a massive
hit, it knocks Sewell out cold, and it instantly
sparks another sprawling brawl between the two
teams. History repeating itself. If we connect
this to the bigger picture, it shows how deeply
sports grudges embed themselves in a club's DNA,
holding over years, just waiting for the right
moment to ignite. But the true poetic irony of
this 2009 rematch comes from the press conferences
afterward. I love this part. Campbell Brown,
the Hawthorne player, who Lloyd publicly called
disgusting back in 2004 for hitting a wounded
player, took full advantage of the role reversal.
He really did. After the 2009 brawl, Brown gets
in front of the microphones and publicly declares
that Matthew Lloyd is one of the biggest snipers
in the sport. It is an absolute masterclass in
holding a grudge. The symmetry is incredible.
In 2004, Essendon was the dominant force, Hawthorne
lashed out aggressively, and Lloyd condemned
them. Five years later, Hawthorne is the dominant
reigning premier. Essendon is struggling. Lloyd
lashes out aggressively and Brown condemns him.
It is a perfect closed loop of sports rivalry.
It really is. So to quickly wrap up this incredible
journey for you. We started with a deeply rooted
1980s rivalry that led to a frustrated locker
room speech in 2004. That's right. That instruction
to fly the flag ignited a historic, terrifying
five -minute brawl at the MCG. It resulted in
unprecedented tribunal charges, colossal financial
fines, and ultimately a complete decade -long
reversal of fortunes for both the Hawthorne and
Essendon football clubs. This raises an important
question, one that extends far beyond just Australian
rules football. We see here the extreme, dangerous
tension between maintaining professional discipline
and unleashing raw aggression in a team environment.
And that leaves us with a final thought for you
to chew on today. Does hitting rock bottom in
such a public, undisciplined and violent way
actually serve as the necessary catalyst for
true cultural reform within an organization?
It's a great point. Hawthorne embarrassed themselves
on a national stage in 2004. They were fined,
suspended and ridiculed. But that very embarrassment
forced them. to look in the mirror, paving the
way for a coaching change in one of the greatest
modern dynasties in the sport? Is total undeniable
organizational failure sometimes the only way
to truly wipe the slate clean and build a champion?
It's a fascinating paradox to consider. The worst,
most shameful moment in a club's modern history
might just be the exact foundation of their greatest
success. Something to think about the next time
you see a team or even a company completely implode
under pressure. Thank you for joining us as we
unpack the line in the sand match. Keep exploring,
keep questioning, and we will catch you next
time for another deep dive.