Beating Melbourne matters most for Western Bulldogs veteran Matthew Boyd on Saturday night, but beating Daniel Cross will come a close second.

The long-time friends will go up against each other for the first time in Saturday night's AFL match at the MCG.

Only last weekend, Cross visited Boyd's house for a birthday party.

"I was tempted to get the hammer out and break his toes," Boyd said.

"We're great mates and that won't change.

"We'll put that aside for a couple of hours on Saturday night and catch up after the game."

The pair were teammates at the Bulldogs for 12 years before Cross left in late 2013 and joined the Demons as a delisted free agent.

Boyd gave an emotional farewell tribute to Cross at September's club best and fairest awards.

They will inevitably go up against each other in the midfield in this weekend's match.

"There are no bets riding on it, just bragging rights, I suppose," Boyd said.

"I'm actually looking forward to getting out there ... and have a run-around against him."

Breaking out the hammer might have been brutally effective, but it would have been a bad look on several fronts.

Boyd joked about his extreme solution for Cross only moments after the Bulldogs had launched a high-profile men's health program for the western suburbs.

The Sons of the West community program aims to change the lifestyles of 2000 middle-aged men in the area.

Former Bulldogs stars such as Tony Liberatore and Brad Johnson are ambassadors for the program.

"There are a lot of tragedies that have happened in the west in recent times," Liberatore said.

"Men's health is really important - not only mental health but also physical.

"We're trying to create a lot of awareness in that."