The King's Birthday holiday has long been synonymous with one of the great occasions on the AFL calendar, the "Big Freeze" fundraising drive for research into motor neurone disease, spearheaded by former Essendon player and Melbourne coach Neale Daniher.
Daniher's courageous and very public battle with the disease and his determination to help fight "the beast" has made him a much-loved hero, and he will again be the subject of many tributes on Monday in Big Freeze 10 when Collingwood takes on Melbourne.
But Round 13 this week is also another milestone. It will be 17 years since Daniher coached his final game of AFL football, appropriately with the Demons against Essendon, the side with whom he played his 82 senior games.
And while Daniher's advocacy for the fight against MND is clearly the most important work he has done, and for which he has been awarded the Order of Australia, it's important to remember his playing and coaching careers were more than noteworthy in their own right.
The kid from Assumption College was an instant star for Essendon when he joined older brother Terry at Windy Hill in 1979, part of the deal which had delivered the duo to the Dons a year earlier from South Melbourne in exchange for Bomber Neville Fields.
Daniher was a cool-headed, classy half-back, the league's best first year player in his debut season and Essendon's best and fairest in 1981, the apex of his playing days the famous day at Princes Park when the Bombers came from the clouds to beat Carlton, Daniher's two late goals when switched forward delivering the win.
Tragically, that was also essentially it for Daniher the player. He tore an ACL the following week, did it again twice more, and would play only another 16 games over the next decade, the last of those in red-and-black alongside his three brothers Terry, Anthony and Chris.
Coaching then became his focus, working as an assistant at Essendon under Kevin Sheedy and famously helping unpick Carlton's centre square work in the Bombers' 1993 Grand Final win.
Daniher worked at Fremantle for three years before graduating to a senior role with Melbourne in 1998, with immediate impact, the Demons climbing from last on the ladder with just four wins in 1997 to a preliminary final against North Melbourne
In 2000, Melbourne went one better, all the way to a Grand Final against Essendon, lowering their colours only to one of the greatest teams football had seen.
In total, there would be six finals campaigns across nine-and-a-half seasons for Daniher the coach, whose greater preparedness to be outspoken on football issues and on behalf of his club as time went on saw him fondly dubbed "The Reverend".
But Melbourne had had another turbulent year on and off the field by 2007, losing its first nine games. Hurt by having to reapply for his job, Daniher announced mid-season that it would be his last.
The following day, Demon president Paul Gardner responded by announcing the Round 13 clash with Essendon at the then-Telstra Dome would in fact be Daniher's final coaching engagement with the club.
The Friday night clash suddenly assumed a significance belying a game between sixth and second-last on the ladder, though a shocking anti-climax loomed after Essendon slammed on eight goals to two in the first quarter, key forwards Matthew Lloyd and Scott Lucas on fire.
But just as suddenly, Melbourne, determined to give its long-time coach and mentor a fitting send-off, sprang to life, booting seven of the next eight goals and almost hitting the front.
Melbourne skipper David Neitz kicked two goals on his left foot, while Colin Sylvia and Aaron Davey provided plenty of ground-level support. In the middle James McDonald, Brad Green, Cam Bruce and Nathan Jones lifted.
Essendon rallied again before half-time, but the Demons replied in the third quarter with another seven-goal barrage. And when Davey goaled at the 20-minute mark of the final term, Melbourne led by 17 points and a fairytale farewell for Daniher the coach seemed assured.
But it wasn't to be. Davey's younger brother, Alwyn, playing for the opposition, gave the Dons a sniff before Lucas, with his fourth goal, made the margin just five points with under two minutes left to play.
Then, in almost the last act of a dramatic finale, the ball spilled out the back of a huge pack to Lucas again, who with just six seconds left on the clock, restored Essendon's lead. There was barely time for a restart before the siren rang, Melbourne players dropping to their knees in despair.
The post-game scenes were emotional, Daniher embraced by the likes of his long-time skipper Neitz and his many friends and former colleagues in the Essendon camp alike. Few, even Daniher, who would soon apply unsuccessfully for the Bomber coaching gig, would have believed then that we would never see him coaching an AFL team again.
But after several years as general manager of football operations for West Coast, Daniher's MND diagnosis in 2013 spelt the end of his active involvement in the world of AFL football.
In hindsight, however, what might have been a sad story has become a far bigger and more important tale. For in 2024, Neale Daniher is still helping people. It's not just football clubs benefitting via his knowledge and leadership example, however, but an entire community.
You can read more of Rohan Connolly's work at FOOTYOLOGY.