Melbourne respectively. North Melbourne would struggle with consistency (not helped by the abrupt 2002 departure of captain Wayne Carey), playing finals in 2002, 2005, 2007 and 2008 within the next decade. After reaching the semi-final in 2001, Carlton would swiftly fall to the bottom of the ladder in 2002, claiming their first wooden spoon in their history, and the last of all the Victorian teams to do so. They would be found guilty of breaching their salary cap, which saw them stripped them of early draft picks for two years, hindering their short-term rebuild, fined $930,000 and club president John Elliott removed from his position. They would not make finals again until 2009. For the season's minor premiers, Essendon, it was a bitter pill to swallow that they were unable to compete in this grand final. 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). Carlton were beaten by the Brisbane Lions in the qualifying final, yet still progressed to the second week of the finals to play the West Coast Eagles. This match, which was won by Carlton, also created a lot of controversy as the Eagles, who subsequently finished a place higher than Carlton and won its first finals match, had earned the right to host the final in Perth, yet were forced to play the match at the MCG due to a contractual agreement with the AFL that required at least one match to be played at that venue every week of the finals. The AFL acted quickly, and in season 2000 the finals system was changed, requiring the need for teams that finished between 5th-8th after the home & away season needing to win all their finals matches to reach the grand final (a loss in