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Melbourne v Collingwood: Father-son pick Callum Brown to make senior debut for Magpies

Collingwood father-son pick Callum Brown will make his AFL debut on Monday against Melbourne in the annual Queen's Birthday clash.

Coach Nathan Buckley confirmed the news for Magpies fans after training on Thursday at The Glasshouse.

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"It's great to see a Brown in the first 22 for Collingwood again," Buckley said.

"There's a bit of romanticism with his old man that will clearly be reflected on."

It promises to be a debut to remember for Brown, son of club legend Gavin, with a crowd of 72,000 expected to attend.

Buckley said that, after the initial shock of being told of his selection, Brown was "over the moon" at the thought of playing his first game for the club where his famous father won a premiership in 1990.

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"His VFL form has been really strong over the last three or four weeks," Buckley said.

"We broke protocol a little bit by letting him know this morning in front of the boys. He didn't know it was happening, so he was pretty shocked. Clearly he was pumped.

"We know that we're not going to lack in endeavour or grunt from him and he's got a fair bit of class to go with that.

"He's busy, he's a ball winner and a ball hunter, he's got great short speed and that lateral agility.

"He's an exciting young prospect with a great attitude, a really professional young man and he's not going to die wondering."

Alex Fasolo is also a strong chance to return to the team after sitting out last week's match to deal with mental health issues while James Aish will be considered after recovering from a fractured cheekbone.

What Taylor Adams said was right. We haven't been a successful club for a long period.

Simon Goodwin

But the Magpies will head into battle against the Demons without Tyson Goldsack (shoulder), Daniel Wells (calf) and Jamie Elliott (ankle) who all injured themselves against Fremantle on Sunday.

Buckley suggested Goldsack might only be sidelined for two weeks, while Elliott could miss anywhere from one to four weeks and Wells would be out for at least a month.

Buckley was bullish about his team's ability to cover for the absence of the key trio.

"We're in a much better position now to be able to deal with that," he said.

"If we bring the same attitude and effort that we've seen in recent weeks we'll be pretty hard to beat, so we're pretty confident heading into the game."

Buckley was disappointed to lose Wells again for an extended period considering he had been playing so well after a delayed start to the season.

Many eyebrows were raised at Collingwood's decision to hand Wells, 32, a three-year deal at the end of last season given his extensive injury history at North Melbourne.

However, Buckley maintained he did not regret recruiting the veteran midfielder.

"It's what happens when you get to the end of your career (with) your body, you can't trust it as much as you used to in the past," Buckley said."The footy that he played in the time that he was up and about whets the appetite. There's no doubt he was pretty important to us, especially early days when he came back into the side."

The traditional Queen's Birthday clash with play host to 'Big Freeze 3', a fundraising initiative to help find a cure for motor neurone disease.

Former Melbourne coach Neale Daniher, a sufferer of MND, is a central figure to the campaign and Buckley was full of praise for him.

"Neale is an inspirational character," Buckley said.

"For him to be as courageous as he is suffering what he's suffering, and to be the pioneer for the fundraising and the awareness of MND is first class and when you see any person that's going through duress, or in the plight that he is in, and do it with such grace, dignity and positivity, it's a fair example for us all."