Collingwood captain Darcy Moore has lit the fuse for a fierce King's Birthday battle with Melbourne as opposite number Max Gawn insists there is nothing personal in the clubs' intense rivalry.
Both sides have slid out of the top eight ahead of Monday's MCG clash, adding a sense of desperation to their first meeting since last year's dramatic qualifying final.
Collingwood prevailed in that spiteful affair, after which Melbourne defender Steven May claimed the Demons "should have smoked" their opponents and were "so much better" than the eventual premiers.
May later backtracked on those comments, conceding he could have chosen better words to use in a speech at Melbourne's best-and-fairest ceremony.
Moore and Gawn came together on Wednesday at the 10th annual Big Freeze match launch, where the Magpies' skipper brushed off May's comments.
"We were pretty busy celebrating after September so we didn't spend too much time on it," Moore said.
"Every time we play against Melbourne certainly feels like we're coming up against a quality team and the game's going to be on.
"Our last game, that qualifying final, was as big a game as we've played in."
The flashpoint of the qualifying final came when Collingwood defender Brayden Maynard crashed into Angus Brayshaw and caught the Melbourne player high.
Brayshaw was knocked out in the collision and forced to retire in February because of "microscopic changes" to his brain following the latest in a string of on-field concussion incidents.
Maynard was charged with rough conduct but then controversially cleared of wrongdoing at the tribunal.
Gawn dismissed suggestions the Brayshaw-Maynard clash had added a spiteful element to the rivalry between two old foes.
"There is a rivalry between the two teams, purely from where we've been sitting the last five years ... and this game has always been a game to look forward to," Gawn said.
"I know what you're trying to get at with some of the things that happened in the game last year, but we can't take that into this game.
"It's a purely new game and there might be a little bit of revenge about the qualifying final because we got handed a beating by Collingwood.
"So there is a little bit (of a feeling) that we want to make sure we get one back on them, but to take any personal battles out there certainly wouldn't be the case."
Ninth-placed Collingwood are tackling a horror injury list and had their eight-match unbeaten run ended last week in an 18-point defeat to the Western Bulldogs.
Meanwhile, Melbourne have slipped to 10th spot on the back of a worrying form slump.
The Demons have lost three of their past four games and were "completely smashed" in all three phases of the game in a 92-point thrashing from Fremantle last Sunday.
Gawn hopes a mid-week visit from AFL great and former Melbourne coach Neale Daniher can be the circuit breaker the Demons are looking for.
"Neale kind of was that for us. We're lucky that this is the week," Gawn said.
"To be able to see him on Tuesday puts a lot of things into perspective about how we're actually going in life and football."
The annual Big Freeze match raises money for FightMND, which funds research into finding a cure for Motor Neurone Disease.
Daniher was diagnosed with MND in 2013.
