It was the empty threat that launched a thousand jokes.
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And now it has been honoured as the word of the year.
When Prime Minister Tony Abbott pledged to "shirtfront" Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 summit over the MH17 tragedy, it set the scene for an epic showdown between the two leaders.
As Mr Abbott reasoned in October, he wanted to tell the Russian President that Australia was "very unhappy" that a commercial plane had been shot down by Russian-backed rebels.
"I'm going to shirtfront Mr Putin," he said.
But while no one could deny the serious subject matter, Mr Abbott's choice of language set off a collective "what the?!" around the globe.
For starters, even Australians were confused by what it actually meant. Only those with AFL knowledge were aware that the term meant a front-on charge designed to knock an opponent to the ground. And how could Mr Abbott possibly do that to a man who has a black belt in judo?
But the giggles were not contained to Australia. It wasn't long before Britain's David Cameron and India's Narendra Modi were making shirtfront gags. In the Australian Parliament.
Of course, when Mr Abbott finally met Mr Putin in Brisbane at the G20, the two only shook hands and pointed at each other, before the Russian President left the summit early.
In short, it was a fizzer.
But the effort has not been in vain, because the Australian National Dictionary Centre has named "shirtfront" the 2014 word of the year.
It beat other shortlisted terms including "Team Australia", "man-bun", "Ned Kelly beard" and "coward punch".
According to the dictionary centre, Mr Abbott's threat transformed "shirtfront" from niche sporting term to one that was "widely discussed and satirised in the Australian and international media".
The centre's director, Amanda Laugesen, said that, along with "Team Australia", the federal government also contributed a number of other terms that did not make the shortlist, including "budget emergency" and "lifters and leaners".
