It was a motivational/team building ploy highly unlikely to get the approval of the AFL Players' Association in this era.
Innovative coach Terry Wheeler implored every one of Footscray's listed players to confront their fears and jump from a plane into Port Phillip Bay in the lead up to the 1993 season.
It turned scary before the real stuff even started.
The Dogs' players were at Pakenham, training for their own looming jump, when disaster struck.
"We were practising how to get out of this makeshift plane, how to get on and off," former Bulldog Mark Hunter recalled on the Danny/Boyd podcast.
"I was in the Hawk's (Doug Hawkins') group and the instructor said 'Come out here, come out here and watch this guy land, he's a professional'.
"He came down wind, he turned too late and he just went ... into the ground about 100m from us.
"I just looked at Hawk and said 'You've got to be joking. If you think we're jumping out of a plane, you've got to be joking."
The players continued on despite the shock of witnessing a bloody crash landing, finishing training, before departing for Point Cook in Melbourne's west to take the plunge.
Hunter said some stopped for a prayer session on the way given the fear in the group.
He and Hawkins said "no way we're jumping" and another Dog Terry Wallace also wanted out.
"Plough (Wallace) blamed vertigo, me and Hawk just lacked courage," Hunter said.
"We ended up going back and doing it, but it's something I'd never do again.
"The plane didn't have a door so basically the instructor sat opposite you, straddled the legs across you and held you in the plane.
"I flew over the top of my house and I just wanted to get out and go home. Then they started counting me down ... 30 seconds, 20 seconds, 10 seconds and go!
"I went to move and I was frozen ... just completely frozen. So the instructor just got me and went 'whooska' and just threw me straight out of the plane.
"It was one of those static jumps where the chute opens automatically and you're supposed to be facing Luna Park. I was facing Geelong.
"I tried to pull the left toggle and it looked like chute was going to collapse. I just threw it up in the air.
"Fossie (Peter Foster) was third out of the plane ... Fossie's (chute) was like a streamer, I don't think he pulled the chute. He was lucky in the end the chute opened properly, but he was third one out and sailed past me. First one into the water.
"The Hawk asked the instructor 10 times to check the chute between leaving the hangar and getting on the plane. He had photos of his kids, he was kissing photos of his kids. He was worse than me, Hawk. He was petrified."
Did it have an impact on the Dogs' season?
Wheeler got the players to line up at Point Cook and had a band marching around the corner, playing "Scotland The Brave". The idea was to re-create the vibe of a Grand Final and the national anthem.
"It was good. We did lots of different things, pre-season," Hunter said.
