Our Sixteenth Flag

The Bombers started off the season by dominating the pre-season series winning the Ansett Cup.

They also dominated the home and away season losing only one game, to Footscray, during the season and averaged a winning margin of 54 points, finishing on top of the ladder after the home and away series.

The club set new records for successive wins (20), wins in a season (24), and its average winning margin of 51 points was also a record.

The teams average of 131 points in games won was the highest of any Premiership team in history.

Matthew Lloyd kicked 107 goals for the season, winning the Coleman Medal and Scott Lucas kicked 57 goals.

In the lead up to the Grand Final, Essendon beat North Melbourne by 125 points, 31.12.198, which remains the highest finals score in VFL/AFL history. They then went on to beat Carlton by 45 points in the Preliminary Final.

The Grand Final win against Melbourne was the culmination of the best season by any club in League history. Although Melbourne, Coached by Neal Daniher, started off the game well the Bombers kicked 8 of the next 11 goals to lead the Demons by 41 points at half time and went on to win by 60 points, 19.21.135 to 11.9.75.

Best players for the day were, James Hird, Blake Caracella, Justin Blumfield, John Barnes, Dean Wallis, Joe Misiti, Matthew Lloyd and Paul Barnard.

Bombers Captain James Hird won the Norm Smith Medal for his Grand Final performance.

The Premiership team was:

B.                                             Mark Johnson                                   Dustin Fletcher                                       Sean Wellman

H.B.                                         Damien Hardwick                            Dean Wallis                                             Dean Solomon

C.                                             Chris Heffernan                                 Joe Misiti                                                Blake Caracella

H.F.                                         Mark Mercuri                                    Scott Lucas                                              James Hird

F.                                             Adam Ramanaskas                           Matthew Lloyd                                      Michael Long

Foll.                                         John Barnes                                       Justin Blumfield                                   Jason Johnson

I/C.                                         Darren Bewick                   Paul Barnard                            Steve Alessio                        Gary Moorcroft