sentences:  Coach Kevin Sheedy forced the Essendon playing group to attend the match as spectators to ponder “what might have been”.They would go on to have their own success just a year later in the 2000 AFL Grand Final.While Carlton’s unexpected feat of reaching the grand final in 1999 has undoubtedly gone into Australian Football folklore, the finals system at the time was widely criticised for allowing a team that had finished as low as 6th to reach the grand final after losing its first finals match (a similar instance also occurred the year prior, with the 5th placed Adelaide Crows advancing on to ultimately win the 1998 premiership despite losing in the first week of the finals).