Nick Riewoldt recalls bizarre pre-season game after Essendon’s plane couldn’t land in Wangaratta
Essendon’s decision to fly to a pre-season game in Wangaratta in 2012 backfired in spectacular fashion, and it left opponent St Kilda in a very strange and ‘dangerous’ position, Nick Riewoldt recalls.
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How do you play a game of footy when the other team doesn’t show up?
St Kilda champion Nick Riewoldt discovered the answer to that question in bizarre circumstances in 2012.
The Saints were scheduled to face Essendon in the third round of the NAB Cup in Wangaratta, and the Bombers raised eyebrows by choosing to charter private planes to get to northeast Victoria in the middle of a record-setting early March downpour.
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“We drove up the day before, as you would for a country game,” Riewoldt recalls.
“I remember when we got wind that the Bombers were flying up on the day of the game there was a bit of, ‘Who do they think they are — they can’t even get in a car and drive for a few hours?’.
“When we heard they had attempted three or four landings and they were all sick on the plane, it’s fair to say we all derived a bit of satisfaction out of that.”
Unable to land, the Essendon contingent was forced to turn around, surviving a low-fuel scare before finally touching down in Melbourne. That left the Saints stranded in Wangaratta with rain bucketing down and a game of footy to be played.
St Kilda’s squad divided into two teams of 14 and played an impromptu intra-club game.
Riewoldt, who is now part of the commentary panel in Fox Footy’s AFL Live Recall, says the Bombers no-show may have been a blessing in disguise.
“I’ve never played in conditions like that.
“It was actually dangerous and if you had have had two rival teams I would have been surprised if the game went ahead.”
The ongoing storm wasn’t as big a problem as the sheets of water laying on the field, making it almost impossible for players to keep their feet and creating potential for injures.
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“We went out and played a bit of a scratch match just to get a run into our legs and for the fans who had braved the weather and turned up,” Riewoldt says.
“There was so much surface water … I remember it was difficult to even kick the ball just from the amount of rain that had fallen in such a short period of time.”
The unusual nature of the game continued into the week, when the AFL initially declared the match a draw then changed its mind, taking away Essendon’s two points and handing them to the Saints — in the days when there was a ladder and trophy for the pre-season competition.
Riewoldt says he can’t remember that postscript from one of the strangest games he played in, but “we were there and they weren’t, so I guess that makes sense”.
Originally published as Nick Riewoldt recalls bizarre pre-season game after Essendon’s plane couldn’t land in Wangaratta