IT’S one of the biggest days on the footy calendar and Melbourne is ready to embrace the Big Freeze challenge.

Dees senior coach Simon Goodwin joined media on Thursday morning to discuss his team’s preparations for the ladder-leaders this King’s Birthday, the selection opportunity for a couple of young Demons and most importantly, the chance for footy fans to show up for Neale Daniher and FightMND.

SHOW UP FOR NEALE

“To get a record crowd [of 85,000] would be unbelievable, I think this is a really great chance to actually get to the MCG and celebrate Neale,” Goodwin said.

“That’s going to be one of the great things of the day - is to celebrate Neale, what he's done for not only the Melbourne footy club, but what he's done for FightMND.

“Celebrate what he's done in so many levels of the game and in life and now it's coming down to who's going to show up.”

GOAL-KICKING PREP

“Goal-kicking is something we've obviously identified for a while now, and we need to get better at,” Goodwin said.

“We believe we've done a power of work at it, it’s something that we spend a lot of time doing and we certainly believe that in time we'll get the results.

“Mark Williams has done a great job in terms of working in that space for us over a period of time and right now, we're not getting the results we want, but we know that if we're consistent and we stick to what we're doing, and we believe that we've done the work and we believe in the process, that we'll be able to kick our goals.

“There's certainly a skill to it, there's no doubt about that, and there's a mindset to it. We believe we've done the work to get the skillset, it's now making sure that mentally, we believe that we're capable and we finish the plays.”

SELECTION MIX

“Obviously with Aidan Johnson being suspended that presents an opportunity and it's going to be a pretty tough decision because Matthew Jefferson and Jacob van Rooyen are both playing outstanding footy,” Goodwin said.

“Matty Jefferson’s kicked ten goals over two weeks, van Rooyen’s kicked six or seven, so we’ve got some decisions to make later in the week around that type of selection.

“What we do know is the two guys that have gone back to get into form - they're in really good form and we're excited by that.”

VINEY'S SURGERY

"[The surgery has] gone well," Goodwin said. 

"It now comes down to the wound, and making sure that he's functional, whether that's next week or the week after, we'll just wait and see.

"We're hopeful that there is an opportunity for next week, but we haven't put any definite timeline on that."