Queen's Birthday fixture under threat for Demons Demons coach Mark Neeld, right, listens as his captain Jack Trengove addresses the team during training at Gosch's Paddock in Melbourne. MELBOURNE'S grip on its annual cash-cow Queen's Birthday fixture against Collingwood may weaken if the Demons' dwindling home attendances this season continue. The crowd figure for the stand-alone Melbourne home game on Monday week could determine whether it remains an intrinsic part of the AFL calendar. The public holiday fixture is by far the club's most profitable game of the season. Two years ago the round 12 encounter reached blockbuster status by drawing 75,998 - more than 5000 above budget - and returned the Demons close to $630,000 in revenue. However, when attendances for the match were on the decline several years earlier, AFL chief executive Andrew Demetriou warned that it was not a given that Melbourne would always host and receive the associated benefits from playing the high-drawing Magpies on the Queen's Birthday holiday. This year the struggling Demons' average attendance figure in four home games at the MCG is 18,704, although those matches have been against non-Victorian clubs Port Adelaide, West Coast, Greater Western Sydney and Gold Coast. Last year Melbourne's average attendance in nine home games at the MCG was 32,878, but was bolstered by the 64,250 that attended the Queen's Birthday game. The Demons may have been fortunate that the round 11 public holiday game against Colling-wood came just nine days after the club won for the first time under Mark Neeld, an upset over Essendon. Neeld is less than halfway through a three-year contract but insists he is not being distracted by calls for his removal. "The external pressure or external noise - that only impacts on your day-to-day job if you let it," Neeld said yesterday. And I'm not letting it. I'm pretty clear on what my job is, which is to coach the Melbourne footy club and that's what I'm doing. With Melbourne in tatters - it sits 17th with just one win in the first nine rounds and an average losing margin of 72 points - Sunday's attendance against Hawthorn could provide a guide to the crowd eight days later. In round seven last year, the winless Demons attracted 36,430 against the Hawks at the MCG, which was their third-largest-drawing match of the season. Their second-biggest home attendance was against Richmond in round 15, which drew 46,773. Interim Melbourne chief executive Peter Jackson was not available to provide the initial forecast attendance against Collingwood. But MCC chief executive Stephen Gough yesterday said he had budgeted for between 50,000 and 55,000. "Given their form, you wouldn't expect it to be as strong as in recent years," Gough said. Debate raged over whether the date belonged to Melbourne given several moderate attendance figures since 2006 when the crowd was 78,733, despite Collingwood president Eddie McGuire being supportive of his club's involvement, at minimal financial gain, in continuing to play the Demons as the away club on the Monday public holiday. "We want to do the right thing by helping Melbourne and maximising the benefits for the whole competition," McGuire said in 2011. In fact, we've lobbied the AFL hard to maintain the game as Melbourne's home game. McGuire said he hoped the clash would eventually become so popular that it could challenge the AFL home-and-away record attendance of 99,256, set on the Queen's Birthday round in 1958 between the two clubs at the MCG. The game has been building since the attendance fell to 59,548 in 2008. The following season it drew 61,287 before jumping to 67,454 in 2010. Due to the continuing generosity of the Pies, the Demons have been able to retain home-team status and keep the gate receipts.