Essendon fans spent so much time and energy booing at Etihad stadium last Friday that it was a wonder they got around to cheering at all.

They booed Dan Hannebery. They booed Adam Goodes. They booed the umpires. Some of them continued to boo umpire Troy Parnell when he was out cold, on a stretcher, being wheeled from the ground. Theirs was a night of booing on an industrial scale.

But there is booing and booing, and Essendon fans of all people should know it. Hannebery was booed for his part in a collision with Michael Hurley that left the Bomber dazed and Hannebery himself clutching at a sore midriff. Replays show that unlike in other infamous recent incidents, Hannebery was in the act of the gathering the ball at the time of the crash, and Hurley at least partly contributed to the accident. Subsequently, the match review panel would clear Hannebery of wrongdoing.

None the less, the crowd booed Hannebery. This was excusable as football pantomime. Hannabery was the cast villain, but his was the sort of villainy that would be forgotten with the fall of the curtain at night's end.