Since the traditional Anzac Day clash between Essendon and Collingwood was first played in 1995, four men have become synonymous with what is now regarded as the biggest game on the AFL calendar outside grand final day.

But when the Pies and Bombers clash in front of another sell-out crowd at the MCG on Friday - just one of those four men will be involved in what shapes as a new era of Anzac Day clashes.

Collingwood coach Mick Malthouse is the only survivor of the four with his former captain Nathan Buckley now retired along with former Essendon skipper James Hird while the Bombers' coach of the past 27 years - Malthouse's former Richmond teammate Kevin Sheedy, whose vision inspired the Anzac Day clash, was controversially replaced at the end of last season by Matthew Knights.

However Malthouse is clearly uncomfortable in his new role as the elder statesman and central figure of the biggest game on the AFL home and away calendar.

"I don't see sport and in particular team sport as an individual right, to me it's about the collective," he said on Thursday.

"I would rather blend in than stick out - I would rather blend in with people than be highlighted."

Malthouse said the only person that deserved to be highlighted in the annual Anzac Day clash was the player who won the Anzac Day Medal by being adjudged best afield.

"There will be an individual who wears a medal around his neck at the end of it, which to me is one of the highly prized things you can get as a player," he said.

"The game is going to have its heroics and courage that you would expect playing on a day like that and from Collingwood's point of view I hope it's fought with a vigour which sums up what the day is all about."

Malthouse, like Sheedy a passionate fan of teaching young Australians about the history of Anzac Day, says every year he feels privileged to be in the middle of the MCG when the haunting Last Post is played in front of a silent 90,000 plus crowd.

"It is without doubt one of the most moving moments in sport that I can be associated with," he said.

"I haven't had the opportunity to be part of an Australian side and I am talking about the Olympics or World Cup soccer or cricket - but clearly it (Anzac Day) is clearly one of the most moving moments of your sporting life."

"It's something you look forward to (every year) and when the bugler struts his stuff - if you haven't got that hair on the back of you neck standing up then, well I think you are not too human."