Veteran North Melbourne forward Corey Jones has been honoured with a farewell match for the Kangaroos against Melbourne at the MCG on Sunday.
But senior coach Brad Scott insists there's no sentiment involved and that the 29-year-old has won promotion on merit.
Jones, who formally announced his retirement at Arden Street on Thursday, has effectively been on the outer at North for the past two years.
Sunday's outing will be just his second at AFL level this season taking his games tally to 157 since he was acquired with selection No.60 from Sturt in the 2000 national draft.
Jones is set to replace Lachlan Hansen who strained a hamstring in last Sunday's win over West Coast at Subiaco.
"Corey's been exceptional in the VFL this year and he's only been kept out of the side by some players who have been a little bit ahead of him," said Scott.
"The way he's handled himself this year has been exceptional."
"This is not a farewell game, it just happens to be Corey's last game."
"He's earned this game through his performances at VFL level."
"A spot has opened up in our forward line and Corey's jumped up a grabbed that chance."
"We absolutely have a team-first attitude here at North Melbourne and Corey really reflects that attitude."
"We're not in the business of putting the individual before the team and we're certainly not doing that in this case."
Jones said the past couple of seasons had been frustrating, but premiership success with North Ballarat had helped to compensate for the disappointments.
He thanked the club for giving him time off during the week this year to prepare for life after football in the building industry.
"I was lucky enough to have Mondays and Tuesdays off through the main part of the season to hit the tools out on the work site," Jones said.
"You get pretty excited when you come in Wednesday and the (players) think, 'he's back, the pain in the arse is back'."
"We hit the coffee strip pretty regular so you've got a bit of catching up to do."
"I have to mention my dog Russ, he annoys all the boys whenever I get the opportunity to bring him down."
Jones said he'd enjoyed an "amazing journey" in his decade at Arden Street and nominated the 2007 season in which the Kangaroos made the preliminary final and he scored 46 goals from 23 matches, as his career highlight.
Despite his setbacks since, he was never tempted to leave.
"Sometimes you think the grass is greener on the other side of the fence but you don't have to go too far or speak to too many people to figure out that ... the people we've got around the club and our supporters are pretty special," Jones said.
"It's just great to be involved."
Jones said he would like to have a kick in the bush next year perhaps for his home town Wycheproof in Victoria's north-west.