With the first pair of episodes and my opening review now in our rearview mirror, instalments 3 and 4 of 'The Bombers: Stories of a Great Club' saw the clock hands shift forward through the 60s, 70s, and early 80s.

While the heroic deeds of shooting stars like Geoff Blethyn and Graham Moss were covered brilliantly on the Fox Sports documentary series, this period also represented a genuine lull for the league's equal most successful club.

But fear not Bomber fans, as a man named Sheedy was along to right the ship very shortly afterward.

As someone that has begun dedicating an hour each Tuesday to watching this stirring series, I was again left pondering by the time the screen faded to black.

So, before the next set of chapters are read out on Melbourne Cup Day, I sought to find answers to another series of queries that have sat on my mind.

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What was an American flag doing in the Bombers' cheer squad that day?

There’s an old adage that claims truth is often stranger than fiction.

And when speaking of Essendon’s cheer squad during their three-point loss to Carlton 53-years ago, this is absolutely the case.

As someone who has always loved pouring over words and vision from days gone by, it has quite often been the little things that have stuck with me.

And when watching the docuseries’ third episode on Tuesday night, this trend continued to run true.

While a now grey Geoff Blethyn was speaking about the roar of the more than 100,000 people packed into the MCG for the 1968 decider, footage of his first goal then panned to the Bombers’ raucous barrackers celebrating on the bottom deck of the old Southern Stand.

Now, this all seems pretty harmonious, but when the United States’ star-spangled banner popped up amongst a sea of red and black, I couldn’t help but scratch my head.

Screenshot by Ed Carmine via Fox Sports, Kayo, and Essendon Football Club.

Though this ‘easter egg’ remains completely irrelevant to anything the series was trying to convey, it seems as though I wasn’t the only one to notice the peculiarly placed pennant.

Having gone on to check if any Essendon player from that year had any American links, I’ve come up empty in my searches.

So, if you have any knowledge as to why someone carted an incongruous flag through the turnstiles that day, please get in touch, as like an MS Dhoni victim, I’m well and truly stumped.

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