Essendon’s pre-match warm up prior to the Anzac Day clash with Collingwood was anything but ideal. The players arrived at around midday to prepare for the match and went immediately into their first team meeting prior to having a pre-match rub down. It was during this time that Essendon match day staff could smell gas in the far end of the rooms where all the rub down table were set up.

After some initial thoughts that it may have been a Collingwood plot to bring the team down, the Essendon staff moved all the tables down the far end of the rooms and called in some ground staff to check out the gas leak. The MCC staff member said he could smell nothing so all the tables were put back in their original positions. However, Essendon fitness coach John Quinn then entered the rooms and said he could still smell gas and ordered that the rub down tables be again moved to the other end of the rooms.

Now that the musical rub down tables saga was over it was time to find an area where the Essendon players could do their pre-match warm up away from the alleged gas leak. Quinn had earlier checked out the adjoining rooms in the Southern Stand – they were empty at the time and Quinn thought it the perfect place. “But when I took the team in all these sailors were sitting around having their lunch – they had been collecting money outside the ground,” Quinn said.

“We did a bit of running in there but I thought it was ridiculous running around with the players basically surrounded by all these sailors. The only place left was the underground car park so that was where we went – thankfully none of the players were cleaned up by cars,” Quinn said.