Queen's Birthday Clash

Queen's Birthday clash

Panorama of the 2011 Queen's Birthday match
Locale	Melbourne, Victoria
Teams	Melbourne Collingwood
First meeting	11 June 2001 Melbourne 8.9 (57) def. by Collingwood 19.20 (134)
Latest meeting	13 June 2016 Melbourne 16.8 (104) def. Collingwood 8.10 (58)
Next meeting	12 June 2017
Broadcasters	Seven Network (2001, 2012–present) Network Ten (2002–2011)
Statistics
Most wins	Collingwood 10 wins
Most player appearances	Brad Green (Melbourne) 12 matches
Largest victory	Collingwood 88 points (13 June 2011)

The Queen's Birthday Holiday clash is an annual Australian rules football match between the Melbourne Football Club and Collingwood Football Club in the Australian Football League (AFL), held on the Queen's Birthday holiday at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG).

Football has been played on the Queen's or King's Birthday holiday since the first season of the Victorian Football League in 1897.

In 1958 a record home and away crowd of 99,256 saw a top of the table clash between Melbourne and Collingwood.

Since 2001, the AFL has officially recognised the entire round as the Queen's Birthday Round and only scheduled Melbourne against Collingwood at the MCG on the public holiday.

Introduced in 2015, the player adjudged best-afield is awarded the Neale Daniher Trophy.

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 clash. The AFL also threatened to change the fixture to another club if the attendances did not remain above 60,000.

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
¹2001–2014: three Brownlow votes, 2015–present: Neale Daniher trophy
²Player also received three Brownlow votes

In 2014, former Melbourne coach for ten years (1998–2007) Neale Daniher was diagnosed with Motor Neurone Disease (MND) 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 Clash" 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.