It was a case of the unstoppable force meeting an immovable object when Geelong hosted Essendon in the penultimate round of the 1993 AFL season.
The Cats were finishing with a wet sail, recording three consecutive wins against premiership contenders, defeating Finals-bound North Melbourne and Hawthorn by a combined margin of 176 points in the lead-up to the clash with the Bombers.
After a slow start to the season, Geelong were responding strongly and had given themselves an outside chance of featuring in September, but Essendon were a different beast sitting alone atop the AFL ladder heading into the Round 21 game.
The two teams had met earlier in the year at the MCG in one of the most famous games in AFL history, when Paul Salmon booted 10 goals for the Bombers only to be eclipsed by a lazy 14-goal haul from Gary Ablett Senior in a fascinating encounter.
The 32,808 fans that crammed into Kardinia Park that Saturday afternoon were expecting fireworks, and that was exactly what they got.
Salmon hit the scoreboard early but the Cats were quick to stifle Essendon's momentum, kicking four of the next five goals to jump out to a 19-point lead at quarter time.
It was some famous Geelong names doing the damage early with Gary Ablett, Billy Brownless, Paul Couch and Garry 'Buddha' Hocking all hitting the scoreboard in the first term.
But Essendon flexed their muscle in the second quarter and showed exactly why they were on top of the ladder, piling on eight goals in the blink of an eye to turn the deficit into a 16 point lead at half time.
The Bombers had some significant names of their own playing that day including the likes of James Hird, Dustin Fletcher, Michael Long and Gavin Wanganeen, flipping the script completely in a dominant period of play and leaving the Cats needing a response after the main break.
With their season on the line, Geelong came out firing in the third term kicking a goal from the opening bounce of the second half, Robert Scott nailing a left foot finish from long range to cut the margin back to 10 points.
The Cats would then string together four unanswered goals to finish the third term, Ablett and Scott involved once again during that passage and all of sudden, Geelong were in front and had a nine point lead at the final break.
Garry Hocking and Barry Stoneham had been heavily influential, while ruckman John Barnes was doing everything he could to keep Geelong's season alive.
This was an opportunity the Cats were not going to let slip and they put the foot down in the final term, continuing their momentum and pulling away from the Bombers with another impressive passage of football.
Geelong would ultimately boot nine of the last 11 goals in the game, and 11 goals to four after half time, extending the margin to 32 points by the time the final siren sounded.
It was an emphatic result for a team on the march towards September, led by a terrific performance from 'Buddha' Hocking who finished with 29 disposals and three goals, while John Barnes was awarded the three Brownlow votes after winning 27 disposals and 14 hit-outs.
Barry Stoneham kicked a game high four goals, Gary Ablett chipped in with three majors and Geelong kept their Finals hopes alive, taking down the eventual premiers in an iconic clash at Kardinia Park.
1993 Round 21 – Geelong v Essendon @ GMHBA Stadium
GEELONG 5.2 8.2 14.5 19.12 (126)
ESSENDON 2.1 10.6 12.8 14.10 (94)
GOALS: Stoneham 4, Ablett, G.Hocking 3, Brownless, Couch, Scott, Tudor 2, Bairstow 1
DISPOSALS: G.Hocking 29, Barnes 27, Bairstow 26, Stoneham, Bews 25, Hinkley 22
BROWNLOW VOTES: John Barnes (3), Barry Stoneham (2), Garry Hocking (1)
CROWD: 32,808 @ GMHBA Stadium
GEELONG STARTING 20
1. Steve Hocking
3. Mark Bairstow
5. Gary Ablett
6. John Barnes
7. Paul Couch
8. Robert Scott
11. Leigh Tudor
15. Peter Riccardi
16. Bill Brownless
17. Tim McGrath
24. Trevor Poole
26. Barry Stoneham
27. Andrew Bews
28. Tim Darcy
29. Ken Hinkley
32. Garry Hocking
33. Darren Forssman
35. Leigh Colbert
36. Ben Graham
40. Paul Brown
