CHRIS Dawes says Collingwood is now just another opponent and coming up against his former side holds no feeling for him.

Dawes, who played in Collingwood’s 2010 premiership, said there was plenty of feeling coming up against his ex-team last year, when Melbourne played the Magpies in the Queen’s Birthday blockbuster.

But Dawes, who added that the Demons were hoping to play the Magpies in front of a crowd of 80,000-plus this Monday, said it was a far different feeling this time around. 

“I built myself up for that first game against your old club last year and that ended a bit prematurely. I hurt my ankle in the first quarter and I didn’t really play after that,” Dawes said from AAMI Park on Tuesday. 

“So now, as far as my connection to Collingwood goes – [with it] being another year down the track – it’s that much more diluted that it doesn’t matter that much who the opposition is.

“There’s a lot of new faces in that team – and I’m guessing I’ll probably get [Jack] Frost, who has been playing on the big forwards. I haven’t even met that bloke.

“So as far as playing against old teammates go – it’s not quite the same as what it would’ve been last year. But it’s a winnable game for us and it’s likely to be a big occasion in terms of big crowd numbers, and the fact that I haven’t played for two weeks is driving my excitement levels at the moment.”

Dawes said Melbourne’s change in mindset – from a team hoping to compete, to a side believing it could win every week – started against Carlton in round four and grew against Adelaide in round seven, when the Demons defeated the Crows in South Australia for the first time since 2001. 

“We thought [against Carlton] ‘if we do the right things, we could win here’. Coming into the Adelaide win … that one was very much ‘we’re going to win this week and here’s how we’re going to do it’,” he said.

“That Carlton one showed ourselves that we could do it and then the belief has been growing each week going into that.

“Whilst we didn’t get the result against Port, we were slow out of the blocks – they kicked four goals to none [at the start of the match]. To actually will ourselves back into that contest and be a goal up with momentum, eight and a half minutes to go, I think we’re showing ourselves more and more each week that we can beat any team in the competition.

“We just have to prepare well.”

Dawes added that Melbourne’s new-look coaching staff under Paul Roos put Melbourne “at the top of pile”.