Life has been pretty miserable for Essendon fans these past couple of decades, as they were reminded again ad nauseum recently when the 20th anniversary of the club's last finals win ticked over.
This week, however, marks a far happier milestone in the club's history. Indeed, so special was this moment that, unlikely as it may seem, when it happened even plenty of neutrals temporarily found themselves cheering on the red-and-black.
Grand Final day is the 40th anniversary of one of the most memorable premiership playoffs of them all, Essendon's remarkable record-breaking last-quarter comeback against Hawthorn in 1984 to win the club's first flag for 19 years.
A famous rivalry was at its absolute peak, but in terms of results, it had been one-way traffic, the Hawks having smashed the Bombers by a then-record 83 points the previous year, and beaten them three times from three in 1984, including (a fortnight earlier) a second semifinal acknowledged as a finals classic.
This day, however, appeared headed for another routine Hawthorn domination when the Hawks got a very early jump on the Dons, at one stage leading by 32 points before half-time and wasting some chances to completely put the result to bed. It was profligacy for which they'd pay.
Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy, in his fourth season already known for ringing a tactical switch or three, in desperation recast his team. Regular backman Bill Duckworth headed forward. In the final term, so did fellow defenders Paul Weston and Peter Bradbury.
Gradually, the Bombers began to chip away at the lead, though goals were still hard to come by. In fact, by three-quarter time, Essendon still had just 5.15 on the board, 23 points adrift of the Hawks.
But it wasn't lost on the Essendon huddle at the final break that Hawthorn was looking tired, and an unusually agitated coach Allan Jeans and players were squabbling. Sheedy convinced his team this game was still very much alive.
And with rested ruckman Simon Madden back on the ground, Darren "Daisy" Williams parked in the centre and Leon Baker patrolling a half-forward flank, the Dons would give it one last crack. The results were immediate.
From the first bounce, Williams won the clearance and thumped the ball forward, where Baker roved the contest perfectly to snap a left-foot goal, his third. Barely a minute later, Bradbury slipped behind a pack to run into an open goal.
Next, it was 20-year-old Mark Thompson, who had come off the bench with teenager Mark Harvey to give Essendon some spark.
And incredibly, after just eight minutes, Essendon hit the front courtesy of what would become one of the most famous moments in Grand Final history, Williams winning another clearance and Baker gathering, blind-turning Hawthorn opponent David O'Halloran, and putting through another from 30 metres out on the run.
A rattled Hawthorn attempted to restore some equilibrium. Robert DiPierdomenico, a matchwinner in the second semifinal but curtailed by Bomber stopped Shane Heard this day, ironed out Essendon centre half-back Kevin Walsh with an elbow to the jaw that had the backman stretchered from the field. Then Peter Curran kicked the Hawks' first of the quarter to restore their lead.
But with the tide having well and truly turned, even that proved a momentary setback, Essendon big man Roger Merrett coming back on to replace Walsh with stunning impact. Merrett would take a goal square mark to snatch back the lead for the Bombers, then have a part of every one of the Dons' subsequent hail of goals.
Weston, who'd been part of five losing grand finals with SANFL club Glenelg and the 1983 thrashing with Essendon, was running amok at half-forward, and bounced through a snap on his left foot to give the Dons an 11-point lead as the clock ticked into time-on.
And any hope Hawthorn still had was snuffed out within the next two minutes as star ruck-rover Tim Watson latched on to a handball from Weston, then was put into space by a Merrett shepherd to boot two quick goals and give Essendon a decisive 24-point lead.
Leigh Matthews clawed one back for the Hawks before, right on siren time, Bomber wingman Merv Neagle loped around the wing and banged one home from 50 metres as the largely Essendon crowd filling the bottom deck of the Southern Stand exploded with delight.
"Long, high and handsome!" exclaimed ABC TV commentator Tim Lane as Essendon hammered the final nail in the Hawthorn coffin.
The siren would sound seconds after the restart, with Bomber skipper Terry Daniher, appropriately, having the game's last possession, a handball to fellow veteran Garry Foulds, playing his 200th game.
Essendon had broken, until then, its longest premiership drought. Its 9.6 last quarter, after having booted just five goals to three-quarter time, was a new grand final record (broken the following year when the Dons slammed on 11.3 against the same opponent).
Hawthorn, having beaten its bitter foe three times during the year and for three quarters of the game which mattered most, was shattered. Indeed, 40 years on, the memory of that day still rankles the many Hawk stars still prominent in the media and football world.
Yet even after being thrashed by Essendon again in 1985, Hawthorn would end up laughing longer and louder, the club playing in seven successive grand finals, eight in nine years between 1983-91, and winning five premierships.
Essendon has won only two subsequent flags in four decades, is currently as far away from another as it has ever been, and as the rest of the football world enjoys reminding a historically unpopular rival, hasn't won a final of any description since 2004.
But any long-suffering Bomber fan would insist there could be few footballing pleasures anyway to top what was served up that last Saturday in September 40 years ago. To adapt Humphrey Bogart's immortal line to Ingrid Bergman in "Casablanca": "We'll always have 1984."
You can read more of Rohan Connolly's work at FOOTYOLOGY.