AFL coaches to take icy slide against MND

For Nathan Buckley and Ross Lyon, this is personal.

All 18 AFL senior coaches will take part in the annual Freeze MND water slide, now a pre-game feature of the Queen's Birthday blockbuster next Monday between Collingwood and Melbourne.

Former Melbourne coach Neale Daniher, who has motor neurone disease, has become the public face of the fight against the incurable and fatal condition.

Buckley and Demons coach Simon Goodwin will be first down the slide into the ice bath before they go back to coaching their teams.

While all 18 coaches are keen to support the cause, their willingness to take part is also a massive show of respect and unity for Daniher.

In the case of Collingwood's Buckley and Fremantle's Lyon, the brutal disease that Daniher has christened The Beast has also affected them.

Lyon's mum died from MND.

"I don't wear my heart on my sleeve," Lyon said.

"(But) it's a hideous disease and my father looked after my mum and my wife Kirsten and I shifted back in and cared for her at the end.

"That was a really difficult time.

"Anything I can do to help Neale and the cause - if we can find a cure through contributing and raising some funds, all the AFL coaches are happy to do that."

On a lighter note, all participants in the ice-cold slide must wear fancy dress and Lyon said he is yet to settle on his attire.

Buckley reflected on attending a wedding a couple of weeks ago - at the engagement party five months earlier, he met a woman who has just lost her husband to MND.

"He was diagnosed at the same time as Neale," Buckley said.

"What they've been able to do with the Big Freeze over the last four years has been first-class, so it's a small price to pay and a small part to play.

"Neale's not going to see the end of it, but he's definitely been pretty strong in getting it (the Fight MND movement) going."