MELBOURNE coach Dean Bailey says this weekend's huge clash with Collingwood is an opportunity to see who among his players really wants to play big-time football.

The Demons have won just one match this season, and while they ran Hawthorn close for three quarters a fortnight ago, they fell away badly last week against St Kilda.

Bailey said the opportunity to start turning the ship around was right now.

"Our players are really excited about playing on this day – in front of 70,000 people, it's going to be a fantastic opportunity to see who stands up," he said.

"We've been inconsistent, there's no doubt about that.

"You can talk about it, you can have meetings about it, you can let them know what's coming and what we can do, and at the end of the day their actions speak louder than any words, than anything that's written on paper.

"And last week it was poor.

"Their actions have to speak louder this week, in a big game, and I'm really looking forward to see who's actually going to put their hand up, who's actually going to go out there and show great intensity because of the importance of the game, against an arch-enemy, if you like.

"We'll see what we've got."

But Bailey stopped short of saying he would discard players who didn't meet the required standard on the day.

"I'm not of the opinion you put lines through them, no, because they'll come back and surprise you," he said.

"We've got a great chance – on a big stage – on Monday to actually put the right foot forward. We were good against Hawthorn, we were poor last week.

"Come Monday, we need to lift the intensity and we must have it greater than the Hawthorn game to be competitive and give ourselves a chance."