Dons warn Tiges of failure

ESSENDON stars who blew their chance at a premiership dynasty 20 years ago say Richmond will never forgive itself if it fails to secure another flag today.

Bombers Matthew Lloyd and Gary Moorcroft said they looked back on the 1999-2001 era of dominance with regret despite winning the 2000 flag.

“I look back being very grateful that I got one, because, as Collingwood would know after the last two years, they are that hard to win,” Lloyd said.

“But, if I had to be brutally honest, we underachieved.

“It hurts that we didn’t make more of it given the talent we had and the opportunity.

“Finishing on top three years in a row, I now look back and say we were good enough to win two premierships.

“If Richmond don’t win this year you’d say yes, they’ve underachieved, but if they win they supersede us.”

The Bombers won 83.8 per cent of games (62-12) from 1999-2001, but lost a preliminary final and a grand final either side of their memorable 2000 flag.

The Tigers — premiers in 2017 — have won 79.3 per cent of their past 58 games (46-12), but lost last year’s preliminary final to Collingwood.

“We don’t reflect on that one [1999 prelim final loss],” Moorcroft said.

“We sort of handed North Melbourne a flag, I think we got ahead of ourselves, but in the end it drove us to the 2000 flag.”

Lloyd and Moorcroft said the banged-up Bombers paid the price for carrying injured stars James Hird (groin) and Marc Mercuri (calf) into the 2001 grand final.

“We got into some bad habits and that’s what Richmond has to be careful of with what they’re doing to teams now,” Lloyd said.