Since 2015, the match has been preceded by the Big Freeze, a charitable event raising funds into research for motor neuron disease (MND). The event sees celebrities slide into a pool of ice water as a curtain-raiser to the match.
History
Football has been played on the Queen's or King's Birthday public holiday since before the first season of the Victorian Football League in 1897.[1] In most years the VFL scheduled three matches to take place on the public holiday. Since 1936 the public holiday has been set as the second Monday in June.
Melbourne and Collingwood first faced off in a Queen's Birthday fixture in Round 3 of the 1898 season, with Melbourne winning by 10 points.[2] Both teams have a long-standing rivalry dating back to the 1950s and 1960s when the two side were the dominant forces in the VFL. Having defeated Collingwood in the 1955 and 1956 Grand Finals, Melbourne was prevented from equalling the Magpies' record four flags in a row in the 1958 Grand Final. That year, a crowd of 99,256 saw a top of the table match between the two teams on the Queen's Birthday public holiday; as of 2022 that crowd figure remains a record for the highest-ever home-and-away crowd.[3] Melbourne would later defeat the Magpies in the 1960 and 1964 Grand Finals. Almost half of Melbourne's 13 VFL/AFL Premierships came against Collingwood and the teams have met in seven grand finals, the most of any pairing.
Since 2001, the AFL has scheduled Melbourne against Collingwood at the MCG as the only match played on the public holiday each year, and this is considered the start of the modern Queen's Birthday match as a stand-alone event. Prior to this, Melbourne and Collingwood had faced each other on the King's/Queen's Birthday public holiday on ten occasions: 1898, 1950, 1958, 1961, 1964, 1977, 1983, 1993, 1996 and 1999; among those, the 1996 match was the only time it was the sole match scheduled for the day. The round in which the game is played is sometimes referred to as the "Queen's Birthday Round", although Queensland and Western Australia do not celebrate the Queen's Birthday public holiday on the same date.
The fixture is traditionally staged at the Melbourne Cricket Ground, which is the home ground for both teams. However, from 2001 until 2018, the match was always a designated Melbourne home game, resulting in Melbourne receiving a greater portion of the gate and its highest match profit of each season, typically in the order of $800,000 to $900,000. Collingwood, which had a substantially higher membership and more blockbuster fixtures than Melbourne, agreed to and encouraged the deal over that period.[4] Since 2019, when a period of success had seen Melbourne close the financial gap between the clubs, the clubs have agreed to alternate the home team designation between the two clubs each year, with Collingwood's first home game played in 2019.[5][6]
The COVID-19 pandemic interrupted the game's continuity for two years: the match was not played at all in 2020, and was relocated to the Sydney Cricket Ground at short notice due to a lockdown in Victoria in 2021.[7]
Match results
This table lists all Queen's/King's Birthday matches since it became an annual fixture between Melbourne and Collingwood in 2001.
* Capacity reduced due to redevelopment at the Melbourne Cricket Ground for the 2006 Commonwealth Games ± Best on ground awarded to a player from the losing team 1 2001–2014: three Brownlow votes, 2015–present: Neale Daniher trophy 2 Match was played at the Sydney Cricket Ground instead of the Melbourne Cricket Ground
Big Freeze at the 'G
In 2014, former Melbourne coach for ten years (1998–2007) Neale Daniher made his motor neuron disease (MND) diagnosis public, having been initially diagnosed the year before, and set about helping raise funds for researching the disease.[8] 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, sporting, entertainment and media personalities get dunked into a giant ice pool on the ground 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.[9][10] The first Big Freeze was held in 2015, and the Neale Daniher Trophy was established in the same year and awarded to the best player on the ground in the game.[11]
No Queen's Birthday match was played due to the COVID-19 pandemic, but a Big Freeze television event occurred with a player from every club involved.[14]
Big Freeze 7 (2021)
Big Freeze 7 was held at the Melbourne Cricket Ground on the day of the Queen's Birthday match, but the match itself was staged at the Sydney Cricket Ground due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
