While Melbourne Cup Day provided Melbourne's masses with a labor-free day last Tuesday, the latest instalments of 'The Bombers: Stories of a Great Club' continued to run down the straight unimpeded.

Although episodes 3 and 4 of the 'Fox Sports' aired docuseries charted the Dons' lean years of the 70s and early-80s, the latest pair were bookended by premiership glory for the famous old club.

Having taken an outsider's view of the sterling stills, snippets and stories of the past fortnight, I've once again poured through the record books and pondered another set of questions that arose across the series' penultimate week.

So, before the final set of chapters are aired and completed next week, here are another 10 queries that cropped up from the recount of Essendon's most recent golden age.

 

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Was Peter Bradbury the last player to ever swap his guernsey after an AFL/VFL grand final?


While the practice of swapping jumpers following grand finals had been a customary act of sportsmanship for decades, by the time the mid-80s had rolled around, most players seemed pretty content to hold onto their grass-stained garments.

As someone that isn't a paid-up Bombers member, I can't say I have spent any serious length of time watching re-runs of the 1984 decider, so after seeing Peter Bradbury clad in brown and gold for the first time, my interest was definitely piqued.

I was always under the assumption that Richmond's 1980 grand final win was the last time that any league footballers had foisted their sweaty jumpers on their opponents, yet with the former Port Melbourne player looking momentarily like the only happy Hawk that afternoon, I guess I was wrong.

Screenshot by Ed Carmine via footage from Fox Sports, Kayo, Channel Seven and the Essendon Football Club.

Having delved back into the archives, there are several examples of players that have traded their colours for those of another since that day, however, none took place on the last Saturday in September.

Following Hawthorn's 1988 Panasonic Cup win over Geelong, Dermott Brereton swapped his vertical stripes for some horizontal hoops, and then 18-months later, his Big V was switched out for South Australian chevrons after the Vic's 86-point win on a muddy MCG.

A set of Essendon skippers have also sent their sashes on for alternative options, with James Hird and Glenn Archer reprising the tradition after trading jumpers after Essendon's 35-point defeat in Round 7, 2007.

Dyson Heppell then followed suit by exchanging jumpers with his victorious counterpart, Trent Cotchin, almost 10-years to the day later.

With sponsors unlikely to be too chuffed with players displaying other brands as they claim their medallions each season, this romantic gesture is almost certain to be dead and buried in this current age of total professionalism.

This much was evident back in 1984, as even though Bradbury was wearing a Hawthorn jumper for a handful of euphoric minutes, when it came time to climb the dais, a quick-thinking member of the Dons' premiership party had switched the defender back into a Nubrik stamped sash.

Screenshot by Ed Carmine via YouTube user 'AFL History'.

 

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