COACH Paul Roos says he’s treating the Queen’s Birthday clash against Collingwood like any other match.

Roos said it was important to keep Monday’s clash at the MCG in perspective, while he questioned the notion of having ‘big game players’.

“We had a lot of big game players at Fitzroy and we didn’t have any big games to play in,” he said.

“So I don’t understand the logic of being a big game player – it’s just strange to me.

“Good players play well every week and good teams play well every week, so for us, it’s another game and another opportunity to get better.”

Roos said Melbourne needed to perform with greater consistency this round – and hit back hard after a disappointing 61-point loss against Port Adelaide in Alice Springs last Saturday.

And he said the likes of high-flyer Jeremy Howe, who had a quiet game against the Power, wasn’t alone.

“The week before it was probably his (Howe’s) best game for the season – but [his form] gets back to that [team] consistency and we like all of our players to find a level of consistency,” he said.

“That’s clearly why we struggle at times – it’s because we have eight, nine or 10 players that drop off for periods of time, not just one.

“I think we can cope with one or two, but we can’t cope with anywhere near as many as Hawthorn or Freo and the better teams can. They’ve got a big margin for error, but our margin for error is nowhere near as great.

“It’s not just Howey – a lot of players tend to drop off all at the same time, so that’s something we’re really working hard on.”

Roos said midfielder Ben Newton was “really unlucky to go out of the team” last week and added that ruckman Mark Jamar was still in the mix to return in the near future.

“[Jamar] didn’t play last week [as Casey had a bye in the VFL] and the week before he got a concussion … but the bottom line is he hasn’t played the last couple of weeks,” he said.

“That’s the main thing at the moment – we need him to play well at Casey and put pressure on our senior team, as Jake [Spencer] did put pressure on Mark.

“We still see him (Jamar) as a really important player for us.”

Roos said Dom Tyson trained well on Thursday and was still likely to return from a two-match absence, due to a knee injury.

“He trained pretty much the whole session today (Thursday), so we’re hoping that he’ll train again Saturday and he should be right this week,” he said.