It was a wintry Saturday night in the middle of the AFL’s centenary season.

Essendon was playing St Kilda at Waverley Park in a fairly uneventful contest.

But that was about to change. 

With Essendon leading by 20 points shortly before three quarter time, Che Cockatoo-Collins kicked the ball deep into the Bombers forward line, only for it to trickle out of bounds. 

Before the ball could be thrown back in to play, there was a major power outage.

It resulted in the ground descending into darkness. 

The teams were ushered from the field as supporters flooded on to the ground.

“There were goal-posts going down, there were fires being lit, wooden seats being ripped up,” former Essendon player Gary O’Donnell said. 

With power unable to be restored, the remainder of the match was completed three days later, on a Tuesday night.

Both sides were allowed to make changes. 

Among the inclusions for Essendon was James Hird who picked up ten possessions and even figured in the ‘best players’ lists of some media outlets, despite not playing on the Saturday night.

Justin Blumfield also came into the Bombers line-up for his first AFL game.

He failed to register a stat but went on to play 129 games for the club, including the 2000 Premiership.