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.
Could Essendon's 1985 team actually beat the near undefeated 2000 side?
While hyperbolic statements and football quite often go hand in hand, sometimes it's impossible not to take certain quotes seriously.
As someone that played a key role in the Bombers' 1985 flag, Mark Harvey is more than qualified to speak of the quality of his those that called Windy Hill home 36-years ago.
And as someone that was Kevin Sheedy's right-hand man during the Dons' premiership triumph in the first year of the new millennium, the reasons as to why that current crop was so successful won't be a mystery to Harvey either.
Still, while the dual All Australian stated last Tuesday that the elder of this pair of premiers was the superior side, his concrete view still has room for questioning.
Despite the 15-year gap between both of these glorified and famous Essendon lists, the difference in winning percentage between the duo still remains at less than 10 per cent.
Having lost just one game across their dominant 25-game campaign, the 2000 Bombers claimed the club's 16th cup with a winning percentage of 96 per cent. While only losing on three occasions, the earlier iteration saluted with a comparative figure of 87.5.
Given their premier statuses, neither side had any troubles with scoring across their respective seasons.
Still, this is another statistic in which the Bombers' most recent premiership team reigned supreme, as they finished with a mean of 131 points for and 80 against. Comparatively, their ‘85 equivalents ended by scoring slightly less (126-points) and conceding a fraction more (89) per week.
Although the James Hird lead squad continued to cruise to the finish line by defeating the Demons by 60-points in early September 2000, their Terry Daniher counterparts beat them in this metric by a neat three-goals.
As Essendon's total of 170-points against Hawthorn in 1985 is the second-highest score ever recorded in grand final history, perhaps Harvey does have a point, even if all of the other numbers suggest otherwise.
Add in the fact this 26 goal and 14 behind effort came against a collective comprised of nine Australian Football Hall of Fame members, and the formerly blonde Bomber's contention starts to hold even more water.
When you take a look at the squads that would take part in this hypothetical scratch match, the VFL version would be afforded the right field four Team of the Century members in Mark Thompson, Tim Watson, Terry Daniher and Norm Smith Medallist, Simon Madden.
While their younger opposition would still be able to send fellow 20th century champions James Hird and Michael Long out to battle, the additions of Matthew Lloyd, Scott Lucas and Dustin Fletcher should see them offer a more than competitive match-up.
As I'm not sure a defence of Paul Weston, Kevin Walsh and Billy Duckworth would have had enough in their kitbags to quell Lloyd and Lucas, if this 'Field of Dreams' type contest ever took place, I'd be willing to make a wager with Harvey.
Still, if after four-quarters of action I was forced to leave Windy Hill with lighter pockets, you wouldn't hear any complaints from me.
