When Essendon CEO Tim Roberts presented Jobe Watson to the entire Essendon playing list and staff at the Shrine of Remembrance on Tuesday, he closed his intro by remarking that 'Anzac Day was a stage Jobe was born to play on.'

He isn't wrong.

The leadership, passion and class that Watson embodied as the Bombers' skipper was well catered to his 10 appearances for the Club on Anzac Day, a fixture that still holds many of his most cherished memories from a 220-game stint in red and black.

While the on-field moments are often spoken about, it's largely the bespoke elements of the occasion which stick out in Watson's mind when he looks back at what it meant to represent his side on the biggest day of the AFL's home-and-away calendar and a 'national day.'

"The more you start to learn about history and the involvement in the peripheral parts of Anzac Day, and as you become more engrossed in the footy club, you start to get a better understanding, I think," Watson said.

"One of the things I enjoyed the most about actually playing on Anzac Day was driving into the game. It's obviously a public holiday and you would see kids walking around, families walking around wearing medals, you see the connection and what the day meant.

"Just being able to go and experience that as I was heading in to play a game of footy and do what I love to do, recognising the significance of the day for the community. That was the thing that I think that I enjoyed most about the game. That is a very vivid memory for me."

Roberts is quick to ask about the 2013 win - still regarded as one of the Club's best ever on the day - as Watson was a starring presence with 31 disposals and a memorable moment of magic from the boundary line.

Even then, Watson is quick to go down the humble route, opting for a slightly more flippant approach as he noted a familiar face in the front row.

"Well, actually, one of my fondest Anzac Day memories is in 2006 when I teed one up to Andrew Welsh in the centre of the ground and Daisy Thomas put him on a poster. I think... I think it was mark of the year almost," Watson said.

With half the room already hunched over laughing, the response from Welsh is one that Jobe's probably heard before.

"Typical Watson kick."

Getting back on track, Watson spoke of the overall intensity and emotion surrounding the day year-on-year.

"That game you're referencing (in 2013) is one of my favourites I ever played in. We were undefeated going into the game and you know, we were starting to have a very sort of strong, well-built side and Collingwood were a finals team the year before," Watson said.

"They'd gotten hold of us previously on Anzac Day - we had the game where David Zaharakis kicked the goal right at the end, but that was a lucky sort of win, rather than quite a dominant game where you could actually enjoy the moment. It was a very fond game that I remember well.

"That's the beauty of the Anzac Day game. I remember stuffing up a kick once in the pocket for a Collingwood home game and there's not a hole that you could bury yourself in that would feel deep enough because of that noise - that's the passion of the game.

"It's a deafening atmosphere but the contrast of the pre-game is so stark. The silence of that moment, the flapping of the flag, that's when it really hits you.

"There's so much passion and energy in the crowd, yet such respect."

An off-season trip to Gallipoli with Tom Bellchambers and Cale Hooker only added further resonance for the day in Watson's eyes.

After his year away from the game, Watson was able to experience the day as a Bomber one last time on a winning note in 2017, where all of his experiences and education around the event had grown and built up to that point.

"I think one of the greatest experiences I had in my time at the football club was that trip. We went over there for the Remembrance Day, we were there with a historian and he was talking to us about Gallipoli and the experiences. You could stand in an old trench, look across the road and see where the Turks were on the other side," Watson said.

"And then you understand the topography of the Gallipoli Cove.

"I had a better understanding of what the people who had gone before us had actually sacrificed and what that sacrifice had felt like in those moments, especially when you've got someone conveying that experience too. So it just amplified the importance of the event because I was able to get some education on what the history of the day means.

"The Neck is a famous place where they the Australian soldiers and the New Zealand soldiers were all in this trenc,h and there was a machine gun on the other side by the Turkish army. And each time the whistle meant, the soldiers would have to get up over the trench and then they'd just be mowed down. And then you'd be waiting for your next turn. And once the whistle went, you knew what was about to happen, but they just kept going.

"They just kept going over every single time to face certain death."

A final word of advice to the group is a poignant one, and an apt note to leave on as Saturday draws closer.

"I always had an enormous sense of pride because what it meant to be, Australian was exhibited and it could be celebrated," Watson said.

"War's not something you want to celebrate, but you want to honour what people do, what they committed and what they sacrificed. Whether you're playing or you're part of the club or you're just there, you're there to be able to say 'thank you'.

"It's a performance that people really care about and a moment to say 'thank you' for what it means to be in this country."