The NRL season opens in the first week of March, and the AFL season follows in the second half of the month. 29 March 2029 falls inside the opening rounds of both national football codes, at the same point on the calendar where Melbourne's Moomba festival runs across the Victorian Labour Day long weekend each year.
A public holiday landing on a Thursday sits one day short of the weekend, and workers commonly take the Friday after it as annual leave to turn a single day off into a four-day break. Thursday 29 March 2029 falls on this day of the week, one working day ahead of Friday and two ahead of the weekend that follows it.
A public holiday that falls on a Monday or a Friday produces a three-day weekend without using any annual leave, which is why long-weekend planning around 29 March 2029 depends on which day of the week the nearest public holiday falls on. A midweek holiday delivers no such automatic extension, though many workers bridge it with a single day of leave.