THERE have been plenty of times this year where Nathan Buckley has had a personal affiliation with his next opposition coach.

In round five, the Collingwood coach faced off with Essendon's James Hird on Anzac Day for the first time since both were players in 2006.

In round seven, it was Brisbane Lions' coach Michael Voss, who Buckley went into the AFL Hall of Fame with last year - along with Hird.

All about our senior coach.

Two weeks later, it was ex-housemate and good friend Brenton Sanderson when the Pies took on Adelaide at AAMI Stadium, and last week, it was Gold Coast coach Guy McKenna, who was an assistant at Collingwood across the final four years of Buckley's playing career.

This week, it's Melbourne coach Mark Neeld - another former assistant of Mick Malthouse, who shared the coaches' box with Buckley in 2010-11 - who will take on the Pies on Monday at the MCG. 

None of the others work in close proximity to Buckley - and Collingwood - but Neeld does.

In fact, defender Harry O'Brien said the Pies still spoke to Neeld regularly as it was impossible to avoid running into him given their adjacent training grounds. 

"He's got a really intimate knowledge of the way that Collingwood operates, even though we've had a change in personnel," O'Brien said on Wednesday.

"He was very close with Bucks as well so he knows how Bucks thinks.

"Before he got the job at Melbourne, he was planning to be an assistant coach to Bucks.

More from O'Brien's Wednesday press conference.

"He will have inside knowledge but we've got a process we believe is good enough to beat any team and we'll be sticking to that."

Such is O'Brien's own knowledge of Neeld, he tipped Melbourne to beat Essendon on Saturday night.

"The week before they had a fantastic first half [against Carlton] and I could just see something within the group building," he said.

"I know Mark really well, I was fortunate enough to have him as my defensive coach for a couple of years, and I know the quality of him.

"I thought it was just a matter of time before they got that result so I wasn't surprised at all."

The Pies had a light run on Wednesday morning, which O'Brien said made it hard to determine the team for Monday with the availability of Darren Jolly and Alan Toovey still unknown.

They withdrew from Sunday's win over the Suns with a virus and calf soreness respectively. 

Dane Swan has ramped up his training after missing two games with a hamstring and Heath Shaw (calf) has "been going well" and will benefit from the extra days off.

With a bigger break between games than usual, the Pies took the opportunity to attend a screening of the Ridley Scott-directed Prometheus at Crown Casino in the afternoon.

"It's simply to get away as a group from what we're used to doing everyday and enjoying ourselves," O'Brien said.

Jennifer Witham is a reporter for AFL Media. Follow her on Twitter @AFL_JenWitham.