Queen's Birthday match


The Queen's Birthday match is an annual Australian rules football match between the Melbourne Football Club and Collingwood Football Club in the Australian Football League, held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on the Queen's Birthday public holiday in Victoria.

History

Football has been played on the Queen's or King's Birthday holiday since the first season of the Victorian Football League in 1897.
The rivalry between Collingwood and Melbourne goes back many years. In 1958 a record non-finals crowd of 99,256 saw a top of the table match between the two teams.
Since 2001, the AFL has only scheduled Melbourne against Collingwood at the MCG on the public holiday. The round in which the game is played is sometimes referred to as the "Queen's Birthday Round", although this is somewhat misleading as Queensland and Western Australia do not celebrate a public holiday on that date.
Introduced in 2015, the player adjudged best-afield is awarded the Neale Daniher Trophy.

Benefits

As Collingwood has one of the largest supporter bases in Victoria, the opportunity to host them on a public holiday is seen as a major financial benefit to Melbourne. It had previously been suggested that other teams such as North Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs should share the match. In 2008 the AFL threatened to change the fixture to another club if the attendances did not remain above 60,000.

Match results

This table lists all Queen's Birthday matches since it became an annual fixture between Melbourne and Collingwood in 2001.
* Capacity reduced due to redevelopment at the MCG

1 2001–2014: three Brownlow votes, 2015–present: Neale Daniher trophy

2 Player also received three Brownlow votes

Big Freeze at the 'G

In 2014, former Melbourne coach for ten years Neale Daniher was diagnosed with motor neuron disease and set about helping raise funds for researching the disease. The Big Freeze at the 'G is a Motor Neurone Disease fundraiser event at the MCG partner with the AFL's Queen's Birthday match. In support of the "Cure for MND Foundation", several well known football and television personalities get dunked into a giant ice pool before the start of the game. Such personalities usually pledge to raise $10,000 for vital MND research after being nominated, and once successful at hitting this target, they then get to pass on the challenge and nominate the next personality into the "cold seat". This person in turn will raise funds and agree to "Freeze for MND" if their fundraising goal is met. The challenge will continue right up until the game, with each celebrity challenging the next.

Participants

Big Freeze 1 (2015)

Over $2.2 million was raised.
Over $4 million was raised.
No Queen's Birthday match will be played this year due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but a Big Freeze event has been confirmed to go ahead.

Neale Daniher Trophy

Since the event's inception, the player adjudged best afield in the Queen's Birthday match has been awarded the Neale Daniher Trophy.