Sacked: Scott Cummings lifts the lid on how it was impossible for him to please Essendon coach Kevin Sheedy

And Cummings has spoken of the pain of being sledged as a “traitor” by Essendon fans after he was traded to Port Adelaide for the 1997 season after initially being offered a new Dons deal.

Sheedy and Cummings have a love-hate relationship, playing up their enmity for laughs at times on the sportsman’s night tour.

But in truth Cummings believes Sheedy’s harsh words for him and lack of positive affirmation got the worst out of him instead of maximising his potential.

Lifting the lid on some of those controversial tactics for the Sacked podcast, Cummings revealed Sheedy even cut him down to size after his eight-goal heroics on his AFL debut.

Cummings has the rare feat of being a Coleman Medallist (1999) who won a goalkicking award at Essendon (1994), Port Adelaide (1997) and West Coast (1999).

Cummings told Sacked he often had to wait to find out if he was in the Essendon team by watching The Footy Show, with Sheedy declining to play him in the 1995 and 1996 finals before trading him.

Eventually Sheedy handed him a debut in round 14, 1994, after scintillating VFL form and he responded with eight goals against Sydney.

Sheedy responded with a withering sledge about Footscray’s John Georgiades, who kicked eight goals on debut then played only 14 more VFL-AFL games in his career.

“What we all know is the more you tell Kevin Sheedy to do something, the less likely he is to do it,” Cumming said.

“He was always at me. I finally got my first game of footy after having two really big bags in the reserves … 11 and 12 in a row. And it still didn’t please him. It still didn’t make him happy. And I’m like, what have I got to do?”

“I remember the post game (after kicking eight goals). I remember walking in and Sheeds had a crack at me as I walked in the rooms. I’m feeling pretty good. I walk in and Sheeds says “Eight two (Eight goals, two behinds). Should have been 10’. Oh man, I’m never ever going to please this bloke ever.

“And then the Monday I walked into Windy Hill and there’s a handwritten note from Sheeds in my locker that says, ‘don’t be the next John Georgiades’. It was those continual jabs … I thought I just can’t please this bloke …”

Cummings and Sheedy often cross paths as part of Essendon functions, with Sheedy making no apologies for driving his stars hard in his glittering four-premiership Hall of Fame career.

“I do some stuff here in West Australia for the WA Bombers and I will go on stage with Sheeds. It’s quite enjoyable for me now I am older and I just don’t care any more, Cummings said.

“I will go him. I am pretty confident that he thinks I’m joking every time. I’m being serious, you idiot. And then we’ll have a break and he’ll go ‘Keep it up, big fella, they love that sort of stuff’, I’m not joking!

“He isn’t reflective on that at all.

“At the end of the day, he’s Kevin Sheedy and I’m Scott Cummings, I’m not sure it bothers him a hell of a lot.

But he added: “Kevin had a big impact on me too. It built some great resilience. I was at Essendon and I wasn’t ready straight away, I was really green, I was a little bit soft. I came straight out of private school and hadn’t had too many challenges in life. As far as serious challenges, I don’t think I had ever been challenged.

“Sheeds taught me a lot about resilience. Taught me a lot about how I want to treat people. And everyone you meet along the way shapes you in some way, shape of form. I speak about Sheeds in a negative way as a player but he’s had an influence on my life and how I behave.”

When Cummings was eventually traded to Port Adelaide he was shattered to be labelled a traitor by Essendon fans the first time he played against his old side.

“I hated that. The traitor calls really upset me. You know, people jumping over the fence, calling me a traitor when I didn’t want to leave and I actually got traded. I got sacked. It was like, what do you mean?”