It's been a long time in between drinks since the Bombers have last won an AFL final - close to 19 years and almost 7,000 days to be exact.

The club's five-point elimination final win over Melbourne in 2004 was the last time they have tasted September glory.

The world as we know it was vastly different back then. So we've listed all the major events that have gone down since.

Here is a list of things that have happened since Essendon last won a final:

  • Pluto was downgraded to a dwarf planet
  • Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans
  • Saddam Hussein was executed
  • Italy won the 2006 FIFA World Cup
  • The first iPhone was released
  • Buddy Franklin, Brett Deledio, Jarryd Roughead and Jordan Lewis were all drafted
  • Nathan Buckley, Brad and Chris Scott, Simon Goodwin, Stuart Dew, Sam Mitchell, Damien Hardwick and Adam Simpson all retired
  • Shane Warne, Justin Langer, Damien Martyn, Glenn McGrath, Matthew Hayden, Ricky Ponting, Adam Gilchrist and Brett Lee all retired from Australian Test cricket
  • Andrew Bogut was drafted by the Milwaukee Bucks
  • Blue-ray disks were invented
  • Twitter started up
  • Shaun Burgoyne won four premierships and retired
  • How I Met Your Mother premiered
  • Steve Irwin passed away
  • PlayStation 3 and Xbox 360 came out
  • SoundCloud came out
  • Kanye West's 'Gold Digger', Snoop Dogg's 'Drop it Like it's Hot' and The Killers' 'Mr Brightside' were all released
  • Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince book was published, and the Goblet of Fire film was released
  • George W. Bush won a US presidential election
  • The Simpsons have aired over a dozen seasons
  • Alastair Clarkson coached his first AFL game and has since left Hawthorn and joined North Melbourne
  • Zach Merrett started high school and since been appointed captain of the Bombers
  • Star Wars Episode III - Revenge of the Sith was released
  • Prince Charles married Camilla Bowles
  • London bombings
  • The T20 Big Bash League was formed
  • Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth' was released
  • Smoking ban implemented in the UK
  • Usain Bolt won his first Olympic gold medal
  • Australia's Black Saturday bushfires occurred
  • YouTube was launched
  • The world's tallest building, the Burj Khalifa, was built in Dubai
  • Melbourne's Eureka Tower was built
  • Port Adelaide won its first AFL premiership
  • Scottie Pippen retired from the NBA
  • Andrew Gaze retired from the NBL
  • Lionel Messi made his league debut for Barcelona and is now nearing retirement
  • Manchester United defeated Arsenal, ending an EPL-record 49-game unbeaten streak
  • The Suite Life of Zack & Cody premiered on Disney Channel
  • John Cena won his first of a record 16 World Championships, defeating JBL at WrestleMania 21
  • Madagascar, Batman Begins, Wedding Crashers, Brokeback Mountain, Borat, Step Brothers and Saw were all released
  • Winx was born
  • Kobe Bryant scored a career-high 81 points for the LA Lakers against the Toronto Raptors
  • Eddie Guerrero and Chris Benoit passed away
  • Bulgaria and Romania officially joined the European Union
  • Donald Trump married Melanie Knavs
  • Britney Spears shaved her head
  • Jennifer Aniston and Brad Pitt got divorced
  • The Indian Ocean earthquake and tsunami hit
  • Novak Djokovic won his first Grand Slam
  • Carlton have claimed four wooden spoons
  • The Giants entered the AFL and have even featured in a grand final
  • All of Essendon's current players were drafted
  • AFL SuperCoach came out
  • Ed Sheeran, Taylor Swift, Lady Gaga and Justin Bieber all released their first albums
  • Wikileaks was launched
  • John Aloisi scored that famous penalty
  • Leo Barry took that famous mark
  • Ben Cousins was sacked as the West Coast skipper
  • The TV Show 'Lost' premiered
  • The NBA's infamous 'Malice at the Palace' brawl between the Indiana Pacers and Detroit Pistons took place