Nathan Buckley lifts the lid on girlfriend's battle as AFL champions rally for good cause

Former Collingwood coach and player Nathan Buckley has revealed his partner Brodie Ryan battles epilepsy. Speaking at an event on Tuesday promoting the Walk for Epilepsy cause - a treadmill challenge that involves walking 4kms a day for 25 days - the AFL great made the surprise admission that his partner is diagnosed suffers from the condition.

Buckley revealed Ryan suddenly went from "operating (fine)" to "effectively glitching" a few years ago. "It’s not really my story to tell but my partner has had some seizures across the last three or four years," Buckley said. "She’s still in the process of working out exactly what that means for her and how she manages that..."

Buckley admits he didn't know much about epilepsy before meeting Ryan in 2022 where he witnessed it first hand. “It’s not something that creeps up on you. It hits hard and it hits quickly,” he said.

“She’s had one or two (seizures) over the last two and a half years in our relationship, and we’re in the process of working out what’s going on and getting to the bottom of it. As you can imagine, it’s pretty scary going from operating (fine) to effectively glitching, so she’s in the process of working out what is causing it and how it’s coming about. We sweep it under the carpet rather than getting in front of it. There’s a stigma with a lot of afflictions and epilepsy is one of them. Eventually, she’ll understand it a bit better."

AFL greats Neil Balme and Brett Ratten involved in charity

As well as being a cause close to the heart of the Collingwood legend, Walk for Epilepsy is equally important to Richmond great Neil Balme and Carlton champion Brett Ratten. Balme personally suffers from epilepsy and says it is a great cause for people to get behind.

“We don’t know enough about (epilepsy but) one in 25 people suffer from it, and that’s from little kids to old people like me,” Balme, 72, said. “I did suffer from it a couple of years ago pretty badly (but) I’m one of the lucky ones (and) medication helps me.”

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Balme says he suddenly had a "crazy seizure" one night and before that he never knew he had it. “I finished up in an ambulance. My poor wife had to look after me. ... she said ‘that’s scary’, she thought I was done,” he said. Ratten is involved in the cause because his daughter, Tilly, also suffers from epilepsy.