This edition also includes all the answers as to why Sam Lonergan is on the right track and catches up with Essendon’s hottest prospects - David Myers, Darcy Daniher, Tayte Pears and Cale Hooker. Plus, don’t miss the collectors edition caricature of Matthew Lloyd.
Below is an excerpt from the McVeigh cover story:
Nine years ago, Mark McVeigh was a teenaged, 10-game Essendon player with spiky blonde hair and more to learn that he realised. He sat in the MCG stands on grand final day 2000, watching his team win and feeling like he understood what had gone into it. Sort of.
When the premiership cup was passed around in the change rooms after the match, McVeigh didn’t touch it, or even try to. When it was passed around at functions that night, again on ‘Mad Monday’ and throughout the next days, weeks and months, he let not so much as a fingertip brush over it.
While he had seen what went into making the Bombers one of the best teams of all-time, he never felt part of it.
“I never touched the cup and to this day I never have,” said McVeigh, who played 33 games to following season, his third, and in the 2001 grand final side beaten by Brisbane.
“I never plan to tough it either. I can still remember being in the rooms and being at all the functions afterwards, and it would have been easy when it was being passed around to grab it and have a drink out of it, but for some reason I was really aware of not wanting to touch it.”
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