But if you happen to be in the minority, lockdown happened and gave you the perfect excuse.
As a kid who first attended a football game in 2001, this game is - to this date - the best game I have ever seen live.
Like many others, I have watched this game quite a few times over the last five and a half years and the butterflies don't go away.
The fact that I know how the story goes doesn't ruin the ending.
It doesn't make Sam Wright's intercept mark in the backline any less brilliant.
It doesn't make Petrie's "Frank the Tank" celebration any less special. If anything, we grow to love it more as they years go by.
Brad Scott and Bomber Thompson only coached against each other three times.
Once in 2010 in Bomber's last season at Geelong and twice in 2014 when he returned to Essendon.
This was the only time Brad Scott prevailed.
And it wasn't as though those two games before it were close. North lost both of those games by more than five goals.
It's quite poetic that the Bombers lined up against North in their first and final games of 2014.
Oh how much changed in five and a half months.
There was a sense of belief amongst this North Melbourne group, which was probably quite rare during the Brad Scott era.
More often than not, the team played with drive. With passion. And with purpose.
Coming off a missed opportunity that was 2013, things were starting to come together for the side in 2014.
They pulled off big statement victories throughout the season against Port Adelaide, Fremantle, Richmond, Hawthorn and Adelaide (in Tasmania) that re-enforced belief.
That Queen's Birthday Eve clash against Richmond in particular, set the scene for what was to come in the Elimination Final.
I still can't get the image of Robin Nahas kicking the lead-snatching goal in the third quarter of thqat game out of my head. What a shame injury kept him from finals.
There were two remarkable things about that Elimination Final that were just remarkable.
The first, is that every man had at least one match-defining moment over those four quarters.
The second, is that it was all done without Boomer.
Of course the side was not without class.
Daniel Wells and Nick Dal Santo combining in the middle of the ground is more than handy.
But Levi Greenwood's career revival hit new heights that evening, thanks to a team high 32 touches, seven tackles, seven marks, six clearances and a goal.
Ben Brown, in just his ninth AFL game booted four goals, all in the second half. He led the revival along with Lindsay Thomas. The pair combining for seven of 12 second half goals. Monstrous effort when you think about it.
And then there was Drew Petrie, doing Drew Petrie things.
He was a sensational player, our Drew. And often he would only need five minutes to completely change the game.
His two goals in the final four minutes sealing the unforgettable come from behind victory and sending North into the second week of the finals.
After watching this game again over the weekend, it became apparent to me what was the driver behind Petrie's last gasp heroics.
With eight minutes to go in the final quarter, Paddy Ryder took a mark just inside Essendon's forward 50, played on and snapped a remarkable goal from 45 metres out off a few steps.
His direct opponent?
Drew Petrie.
It was a sensational goal. And I've got no doubt Petrie felt responsible for that goal and his brain fade in that moment.
Because it spurred him to one up Ryder, which he did.
You know what happens next. Not one, but two match winning goals in the space of 30 seconds.
The first saw the birth of "Frank the Tank", which stands as the iconic moment of the game.
The second was on the back of some exceptional ruck work by Todd Goldstein, who beat Ryder in the contest and served it straight down Dal Santo's throat who took the clearance.
Little moments in the game shifted its destiny completely.
After the siren, I once again go back to an initial thought.
The fact that each player stood up and contributed in individual moments, patches or throughout the entire game made up for the absence of Boomer.
It was quite remarkable, really. We all know what an influential player he was.
Not only did those moments make up for a missing Boomer, but they were likely the difference between victory and defeat.
I've deep-dived into the full time stats of the game and on paper, very little separated the two sides.
But as mentioned just previously, North made the most of its opportunities when they were there for the taking.
Let's look back on the third quarter.
Obviously that was when the momentum shifted and North's comeback begun, but the way we converted when we dominated the play, in comparison to Essendon in the second quarter was a major difference.
In the second quarter, Essendon registered seven scores but only managed 4.3 (27). Despite kicking the first goal of the third quarter and taking the led out to almost six goals, they failed to genuinely capitalise on their second quarter dominance.
North, on the other hand booted seven goals and just the single behind from a total of eight scores in the third quarter, making the most of the momentum shift.
That there is the difference.
For a bit of perspective, North had 23 scoring shots to Essendon's 21 at full time and won the game by 12 points.
I'm obviously not complaining at how the game played out.
If you'd like to dive a little further, North won the clearances by one.
Of course during the game things were different. Essendon smashed North in the clearances in the first half but as we came back, we evened things up.
But if we are looking back on it overall, five and a half years on.
Stoppage clearances were even around the ground, but North took 14 centre clearances to Essendon's 13.
The difference? The second last centre clearance of the game went the way of Nick Dal Santo, who set up Drew Petrie's match sealing goal I touched on earlier.
Goldstein won the final centre clearance of the game, too for those wondering.
It's a game of seconds and inches, and North certainly inched their way to victory.
It took guts and moments of brilliance. I remember the game so clearly I almost didn't need to re-watch the game to write this article!
But I figured another replay wouldn't hurt.
There's just one person left to talk about. The man sitting in the coaches box.
An entire coaching panel is responsible for what a team does and how well they succeed, but ultimately there's one person who is thrust into the spotlight during the good, bad and ugly.
When Brad Scott faced the media in his post game press conference, he was asked a simple question.
"Is this the best win in your coaching career?"
He broke out into a massive grin. "Yes".
You can say what you want about Brad Scott, but this was a moment that brought euphoria to North fans around the world and he was part of the puzzle.
He was our coach, first and foremost but like the rest of us, he too was a North fan.
Sure, what followed two weeks later was less than desirable, but you can't change history.
However, if we get to recount this game forever, then it's not a bad thing after all.
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