Collingwood's Rhyce Shaw credits the Queen's Birthday clash against Melbourne as helping establish himself as an AFL player - although it came at a major price.

Shaw will on Monday play the Demons on the Monday holiday for the first time since he snapped the anterior cruciate ligament in his knee during the corresponding game in 2005, which cost him almost 12 months on the sidelines.

But the hard work he undertook in the following years helped earn a regular place in the Collingwood side, and the winger's career-best season has helped the Magpies scale new heights the past three weeks.

"It wasn't the best at the time, but it probably provided me with a bit more focus and a bit more resilience for the coming years," said Shaw, 26, of the moment Melbourne's Jeff White fell across his knee and the following rehabilitation.

"It's probably helped me in some terms I suppose.

"I always took it for granted I would play pretty good footy, because I always had potential, but in AFL footy potential gets you nowhere.

"You have to work hard, and I don't think I did that for a long stage of my career.

"Things are going my way at the moment, but I try to make it a focus that you're only one bad game away from getting dropped.

"So I've played every game like it's my last and so far it's working, and hopefully it can continue because I don't think I've ever played 12 games in a row."

While Collingwood expect to continue their outstanding form, Melbourne must lift for their biggest game of the season after a horror first half of the campaign, which yielded one win, the injury-enforced retirement of David Neitz and Russell Robertson's year-ending injury.

But even though the Demons have plumbed to new depths on-field, they have a good recent record in this fixture, having won the past four.

"It's all a bit of a mess for them, but they could come up with anything," Shaw said.

"They've won the past four Queen's Birthday clashes when they haven't been in the best form.

"They always match up well against us, but we've got to go out there and play four quarters and put the pressure on them. If we do that we'll go a long way towards winning the game."

Melbourne are also under pressure from the AFL to attract a good home crowd to ensure they can be granted this fixture next season.

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