Melbourne might have lost its competitive edge in the past few seasons but it has maintained the belief to match it with September regular Collingwood whenever the two sides meet, according to star midfielder Brad Green.

The Demons have proved to be somewhat of a bogy team for the Magpies in recent times, winning four consecutive Queen's Birthday encounters from 2004 to 2007 and pushing Collingwood to within 11 and 21 points respectively in their past two encounters.

Those two close losses and the 2007 Queen's Birthday victory came during a woeful two-year period for Melbourne that only yielded eight wins from 44 matches.

During that same timeframe the Magpies fell five points short of denying eventual premier Geelong a place in the 2007 Grand Final and backed up that effort by making it to the semi-final stage last year.

So Green might be forgiven for feeling optimistic about his team's chances against the Demons' fellow first-round loser on Saturday at the MCG, especially after their spirited showing in losing to North Melbourne last week.

"It's something that the boys always get themselves up (for), it's always a big game Queen's Birthday," he said.

"It's always a good time to play Collingwood, no matter when it is. We enjoy playing Collingwood there's no doubt about that."

The Magpies' ability to cope with the latest fad in tactics, the rolling zone, has come into question in some quarters and Green didn't deny that it could be a weapon Melbourne employs.

"Yeah, we've had a bit of a look at Collingwood," he said.

"We haven't really said that's how we're going to play, we've got a meeting to go before the game, but I'm sure they (coaching staff) will put something into place."

And while notching a victory would be more than welcome by the 28-year-old, he insisted that it's not all 'about winning.'

"It's about going out there and improving our footy and as a senior player, the excitement is me seeing Neville Jetta go out and kick a goal," Green said.

"Excitement for me is Jamie Bennell running out of the backline with pace, these kids bring excitement to me so that's what we're about."

"We had 10 guys (against the Kangaroos) that played only 20, 25 games and it's showing good signs."

"With that youngish side that we've got playing at the moment, they're certainly going to have their ups and downs and it's a bit of a rollercoaster."

"But there's signs and there's certainly going to be a lot of improvement on last year."

It won't be just about kids on Saturday, the match will also see the return of bad boy Colin Sylvia to the senior line-up after he was suspended last month for breaking a club curfew.

Meanwhile, Green confirmed that Russell Robertson will play his first competitive match of football on Sunday since rupturing his Achilles tendon in Round 10 against St Kilda last year.

The 30-year-old will play a half for the Demons' VFL affiliate Casey Scorpions in their practice match against Coburg Tigers.