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=== Essendon === One of the fiercest rivalries in the AFL can be traced back to [[1896 VFA season|1896]], when several clubs, including [[Essendon Football Club]],<ref>{{cite web |last1=Ralph |first1=Jon |title=North Melbourne's rivalry with Essendon dates back 125 years and remains real to this day |url=https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/more-news/north-melbournes-rivalry-with-essendon-dates-back-125-years-and-remains-real-to-this-day/news-story/f7e0cd84193f089e2a33bbd3964491d7 |website=Herald Sun |publisher=News Corp |access-date=27 June 2020}}</ref> broke away from the Victorian Football Association to form the Victorian Football League. North sought to join the breakaway competition, but some argue this desire was not realised due to Essendon feeling threatened by North's proximity and the fact their inclusion could drain Essendon of vital talent. More than 100 years later, some North supporters have not forgiven Essendon for the decision and have blamed the Bombers for their relatively small supporter base and gate revenue. North were finally admitted into the VFL in 1925 alongside [[Western Bulldogs|Footscray]] and [[Hawthorn Football Club|Hawthorn]]. In [[1950 VFL Grand Final|1950]], the two sides met in their first and only grand final meeting to date, which Essendon won by 38 points. The rivalry would flare up again in the 1980s. In [[1982 VFL season|1982]], the Krakouer brothers, [[Jim Krakouer|Jim]] and [[Phil Krakouer|Phil]], led the Kangaroos to an Elimination Final win. Essendon had their revenge a year later, winning a Preliminary Final by 86 points. The rivalry was re-ignited in the late 1990s and early 2000s due to the on-field success of the two sides. In preparation for the [[1998 AFL finals series|1998 finals series]], and despite losing six of their last eight to the Kangaroos, legendary Essendon coach [[Kevin Sheedy (Australian footballer)|Kevin Sheedy]] publicly labelled North executives [[Greg Miller (Australian footballer)|Greg Miller]] and [[Mark Dawson (footballer)|Mark Dawson]] soft in response to comments from commentators that his Essendon team was soft. The Kangaroos beat Essendon in the much-hyped encounter that followed (a Qualifying Final), and North fans pelted Sheedy with marshmallows as he left the ground, although Sheedy was seemingly unfazed by the incident, encouraging a "Marshmallow Game" the next year and relishing in the fact that Sheedy's ulterior motive was to build up the game and draw a large crowd, which proved to be correct, drawing in 71,154 people to attend the game. In [[2000 AFL season|2000]], the Bombers thrashed North by 125 points. The biggest VFL/AFL comeback of all time occurred between the two teams when Essendon managed to come back from a [[Essendon v Kangaroos (2001 AFL season)|69-point deficit]] to win by 12 points in [[2001 AFL season|2001]]. A meeting of the two rivals at the MCG in the [[2014 AFL finals series]] in the 2nd Elimination Final resulted in North winning by 12 points, eliminating Essendon from the finals series and extending their drought of years without a finals win.<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.abc.net.au/news/2014-09-06/bombers-blow-finals-chances-with-loss-to-kangaroos/5725150 | title=STAR BOMBER TAKES DIG AT ROOS OVER RIVALRY | date=6 September 2014 }}</ref> The rivalry has at times been described as one-sided; in 2020, Essendon player [[Devon Smith]] remarked "It's a bit of a rivalry built up from them, but for us it's another game"<ref>{{cite news | url=https://www.sen.com.au/news/2020/07/12/star-bomber-takes-dig-at-roos-over-rivalry/ | title=Bombers blow finals chances with loss to Kangaroos | newspaper=ABC News | date=11 July 2020 }}</ref> given Essendon Football club considers its main rivals to be [[Carlton Football Club|Carlton]], [[Collingwood Football Club|Collingwood]] and Hawthorn.
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