It was Mr O'Brien who orchestrated the open letter to the Russian people signed by relatives of nine victims who died on the flight. The letter took some two months of his time to organise he told the Herald. It said the World Cup would have a "different darker meaning" for those families. It was picked up by a Russian media outlet - one of those papers where their journalists disappear from time to time, Mr O'Brien said. It was done during what has, so far, been almost a four-year search to get at the truth of what happened. The couple, sitting in their front room, feel they got a bit closer on Thursday when the Joint Investigation Team confirmed that MH17 was shot down by a Buk-TELAR missile made in Moscow in 1986. All 298 people on board, including 38 Australians, died in the attack. Jon and Meryn O'Brien. Credit:Wolter Peters Meryn said of the investigation: "I think they were as thorough and meticulous and calm and determined as they have been from the beginning. My message to Putin is just tell the truth. It's not going to change anything in terms of the absence of Jack in our daily lives, but the truth still matters."

Jon said: "We want people to be identified right up the chain of command. We want the Russian people to understand the truth about Putin. I think quite a few of them already do." Their son had just completed a grand tour during the last World Cup, taking in Iceland, Paris and Moscow, and to "pay homage" in Barcelona and was on his journey home. The plaque to Jack on a park bench at his team's ground. Credit:Wolter Peters There's a plaque on a bench next to Winston Hills Soccer Club a short drive from the family home. With no grave, Jack's mates needed somewhere to remember him. It says he played his first game in the Under 8's at this ground. "Jack died on passenger flight MH17, shot down over Ukraine. He was on his way home to his family, his friends, his team," the plaque reads.

He planned to play in their next fixture the day after landing home. One of his last emails was to ask a friend where they were playing on Saturday. The week before the World Cup final Mr and Mrs O'Brien will travel to the Netherlands to look through security footage from Schiphol airport to show them the last pictures of those who died. It will be painful but they feel they have to do it. They promised their daughter, Bronwyn, 25, they would be back for the fourth anniversary of the attack. The final of the World Cup is on July 15 - two days before the anniversary on July 17, 2014. Jon said: "The irony is that the World Cup is being held in Russia ... the World Cup is on and Jack isn't here, there is something fundamentally wrong with the world." The reconstructed wreckage of Malaysia Airlines Flight MH17 Credit:AP