Craig Welton is hoping for finer weather this year.
But whatever he faces on a 230-kilometre walk starting at Singleton's Howe Park and finishing at Macquarie Field in Speers Point, the Edgeworth 34-year-old will take in his stride.
The Lake Macquarie City Football Club senior men's assistant coach is walking to raise money and awareness for Talk2MeBro, a grassroots mental health and suicide prevention charity.
It is a cause close to his heart and Welton hopes to start important conversations through The Long Walk Back to the Sheds.
"I'm doing it for a personal reason and also for the greater community," Welton told the Newcastle Herald this week.
"I lost my mum this year to mental health problems. I did the walk last year for similar reasons.
"Last year I had interactions with Talk2MeBro through football. I was a coach at South Cardiff, and we did a lot of work with Talk2MeBro. I had a younger-age team that we took to some seminars with them.
"I loved what they did in the Newcastle community. I wanted to connect my love of football to something that I saw in the community that was a problem, especially when I was coaching younger-age teams.
"I had a lot of teenagers going through the stresses and anxieties of growing up, and Talk2MeBro really pushed on that button."
Last year, Welton walked 157km, visiting the 10 Northern League One clubs on his journey.
This year, in addition to the 10 Northern League One clubs, Welton will walk to the 12 NPL Men's clubs as well as 13 Zone League clubs across Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and the Hunter Valley.
"The biggest thing this year was trying to spread the word," Welton said.
"I wanted to get more exposure out there and to get more exposure meant I had to walk further and see more people.
"The idea was to try and get to as many different groups and communities in football in Newcastle.
"Walking to the NPL teams, the Northern League One teams and the Zone League One teams as well gave a huge footprint of Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and the Hunter Valley."
The walk took 37 hours last year, and included thunderstorms and a 12-hour slog in almost 100 millimetres of rain.
This year, Welton predicts it will take about 57 hours.
He will set out at 6am on Friday. All things going to plan and with some short scheduled rests along the way, he will arrive at his final destination by 2.30pm on Sunday and in time for Lake Macquarie City's final home game of the Northern League One season.
There will be support the whole way from family and friends and Lake Macquarie's entire senior men's squad will walk alongside Welton on Saturday afternoon.
The company will be welcome.
"The actual walking side of it, there's a couple of tough bits that are quite hilly," Welton said.
"But the biggest thing is just the mental side of putting one foot in front of the other, keep moving, especially during the night.
"I find walking at night can be very therapeutic, but it does play on your mind a lot because you can't see in front of you, you can't see the distance you've walked."
Preparation has included hundreds of kilometres walking the streets of Newcastle, Lake Macquarie and the Hunter Valley, gym sessions and time away from his young family.
But every step has been taken with one goal in mind - to keep the conversation alive.
"The key thing is to keep talking to people, have a conversation with someone, even though it might be hard, to check in with people, check in with your friends, check in with your family, and just make sure that conversation never stops," Welton said.
"That's the biggest thing that Talk2MeBro talk about, is always having that conversation, and peeling back the skin of not just, 'How are you, but how are you really?'."
Last year, Welton raised $12,000 for Talk2MeBro and was already halfway to that total through his fundraising page before he hit the road on Friday.
You can follow Welton's journey through the event's Instagram page.
This weekend is Mental Health Round across Northern NSW Football.
Lake Macquarie and Wallsend are locked at the top of the Northern League One ladder in the race for promotion with two rounds remaining.
Lake Macquarie host South Cardiff at 3pm on Sunday. At the same time, Wallsend will celebrate Old Boys Day at The Gardens, where they take on West Wallsend in the oldest local derby in Australian football.
