The Special Hatred
The word ‘special’ gets thrown around a lot.
The United States and the United Kingdom have the ‘special relationship’. Grandparents and their grandchildren have that ‘special bond’. Ricky Dyson has a special place in my heart, thanks to his (quite unfairly) forgotten goal from the boundary in the ‘09 Anzac Day classic.
On the 50 arc no less!
But when we say the word special, I like to believe that most of the Essendon faithful think of Carlton. Heaven forbid we mean anything pleasant or complimentary, no, quite the opposite. Because for many in the red n black, Carlton holds a prominent place in our rogues’ gallery.
Because above all others, the Blues are our ‘special hatred’.
I can’t count how many times I’ve said of a wintery weekend that a Carlton loss is as good as an Essendon win. To watch the Blues go down in a fiery mess is one of those sweetest of things for the Bombers tribe. There’s just something about them that makes everything associated with them … amplified.
To see a player from your team move across to another club is one thing – but to defect to Carlton is pure treason! Adam Saad, I’m looking at you.
To truly understand the roots of the rivalry between the two clubs, you’d likely have to travel back to the beginning of the Sheedy era in 1981. He hated them at Richmond, and he hated them at Windy Hill. To list every encounter could potentially take a few weeks to compile. So, for the sake of brevity, I feel keeping it relatively modern will paint a decent enough picture of the good times, and the bad, against our favourite foe.
It’s hard to put together any list related to these clubs without mentioning the 1993 Baby Bombers, winning the flag over the highly touted Blues. All these years on, I now kinda hope SOS actually did touch Longy’s goal. Salt in the wound.
It was a sombre train ride home from the MCG after a 48-point, come from behind, Blues win in 2007, led by an 8-goal haul from Brendan Fevola. There was draw of 2011, made famous by Dustin Fletcher’s heroic chase down of Jeff Garlett with his go-go gadget arms! There was the 2000 slamming of the Blues in the preliminary final, though that wasn’t an act reserved exclusively for Carlton that year. Those 2000 Bombers were killers, plain and simple. Back to 2011 and there was that horrendous Elimination Final disaster, thanks mostly to the talents of Chris Judd. What about the most unexpected of unexpected wins in the final round of 2016! Walla was cookin’ up a feast of brilliant goals – seasoned to perfection by sweet, delicious Carlton tears.
Even most recently, the two have continued the rivalry, now in the AFLW. The round 2 match-up of the Dons’ girls inaugural 2022 season ended painfully, going down by just one to the Filth after a courageous fight back.
But I think it’s impossible to understand why Dons folk hate Carlton so very much without discussing, ‘the game’. It’s a tough topic to bring up, especially for fans who are old enough to have been there and who still live with the trauma. We speak of the nightmare that was – God, I can’t say it – I can’t do it! The 1999 prelim’.
A moment’s silence … okay, back to it.
Rivalries are built on experiences and the Bombers and Blues have had more than enough. But having said all that, I feel at its core the hatred towards one another, especially in modern times, may come down to one thing.
The race to 17.
Adam Saad switched out the red sash for the navy blue at the end of 2020.
Both clubs have been tirelessly scrambling to be the first to 17 flags, to stand atop the competition alone and oh-so-smug. Both have threatened to be on the right track over the last 20 years or so and then suddenly, not. Because, as woeful as it is to acknowledge, mediocrity and outright failure have been almost the exclusive menu items for the Blues and the Bombers, since our last glory years of the late 90’s / early 00’s.
Scandals rife. Coaches in and coaches out. False dawns, new programs, big calls, and plenty of airtime at the draft. As strange as it is, Carlton and Essendon have trod a similar path for near on 20 years. Almost side by side for a couple of years after the infamous Bryce Gibbs Cup of ’06. Both have had little sniffs, glimpses of decent footy … all for naught so far. But the last few years, the clubs seem to be alternating which one will be good and which won’t.
The only evidence you need is the fates of both sides this season.
In a year of low expectations and constant requests from the top brass out at Tullamarine for Bomber fans to be calm and be patient, the club has given us more than most expected. Seven wins from twelve. A fresh style of footy, a suspiciously competent coach and a team seemingly playing for each other. Dare I say it, a unit has formed.
Then there’s the ol’ Bluebaggers. Top 4 awaiting them. Hopes higher than the Eureka Tower. Talent aplenty. And then, 4 and a half wins after a dozen. We look. We rejoice. But we know how often that shoe has been on the other foot. Let’s just think about how we all felt going into 2018, or 2020 or 2022. God, even-numbered seasons are really not good for us Dons.
We’ve been let down more times than we can count. But so too has our archenemy.
Carlton wasn’t meant to be a good team in ‘22. Carlton wasn’t meant to be a poor team in ‘23. Essendon wasn’t meant to be a crap team in ‘22. Essendon aren’t meant to be anywhere near the Top 8 this year.
They are the yin to our yang. Our bizarro-universe equivalent. Our evil reflection.
When it comes to rivals, there are few moments in my 30 plus years as an Essendon supporter that I’ve hated an opposition team more than I’ve hated Carlton. Maybe Hawthorn during the line-in-the-sand game. I certainly hate Collingwood a bit, especially every time I see Jack Ginnivan happy. But rain, hail, or shine … I hate Carlton.
We hate Carlton.
It’s why they’re so very special to us. Life can be a mess sometimes, inconsistent, and chaotic. So can our footy team. God knows what they’ll throw at us from season to season, sometimes even quarter to quarter. Last weekend’s 2nd quarter against the Kangaroos was evidence enough! But in those times, it’s nice to be able to rely on something constant. Solid. And I don’t know about you, but hating Carlton has been that constant for me. My compass pointing north. The foundation on which my footy life stands.
We have a special bond, Carlton and Essendon. An unholy union based on pure, unfiltered dislike of each other.
We feel pain - they feel joy. We’re enraptured and they’re calling SEN complaining about Harry McKay. And of course, our generational battle to beat the other to 17 flags is surely nothing less than the heart of our rivalry. Unless those sneaky bastards from Collingwood beat us both to it. Even at 15 flags, they give me permanent anxiety that they’ll reach 17 first … but that’s another story.
This is about Beelzebub. Lucifer. Satan. Carlton.
A Carlton loss is as good as an Essendon win, no truer words have ever been said. So, let’s hope we get both this coming weekend, and raise a glass (or something else) to a club that we will never stop despising.
To Carlton, we hate you.
In a very special way.
Go Planes.