Set to perform before their biggest crowd for the season, the Demons are being urged by senior coach Dean Bailey to lift their intensity to new levels for the Queen's Birthday clash against the arch enemy Collingwood.

While the Magpies, according to Bailey, have been 'outstanding' over the past fortnight in thumping Geelong and West Coast, the Demons have been hot - against Hawthorn - and cold in going down by 79 points to St Kilda, over the same period.

"As a club and as players, our performance last week was really poor and we've got a great chance on a big stage on Monday to actually put the right foot forward," Bailey said at Junction Oval on Thursday.

"We need to lift the intensity and we must have it greater than the Hawthorn game to be competitive and to be a chance."

"You can talk about it, you can have meetings … but at the end of the day, the (players') actions speak louder than any words and anything written on paper, and last week it was poor."

"Their actions have got to speak louder this week in a big game and I'm really looking forward to seeing who's actually going to put their hand up, who's actually going to go out there and show great intensity against an arch enemy."

Bailey agreed the retirement of David Neitz coupled with the season-ending Achilles injury to Russell Robertson had forced him to recast the forward set-up.

He'll be relying on a boost in forward pressure on Monday to complement the work of the Demons' 'four or five marking options'.

"It will give us an opportunity to be flexible," he said.

"We've got to be - we’ve got Bate, Miller, and Sylvia, obviously (Paul) Johnson now and when you take two key targets who aren’t going to be there it means that we’re going to have other key targets."

"There's going to be great responsibility on those guys I've just mentioned to kick goals … I expect there to be a good spread, but we need to be a bit inventive and innovative on the weekend."

Bailey said that Aaron Davey was close to returning from a strained hamstring, but remains doubtful.

The Demons' biggest crowd so far this season was the 46,792 who turned up for the Round 5 loss to Carlton at the MCG, so the prospect of playing before an audience in the region of 70,000 has Bailey excited.

And the