MELBOURNE forward Aaron Davey doesn’t believe calls by Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett for the Demons to relocate to the Gold Coast will have any bearing on Sunday’s match between the two clubs.

Davey, 24, insists the playing group remains unaffected by the former Victorian premier's public comments and will be more intent on showing how much the side has improved since the opening round of the season when the Hawks dished out 104-point hiding.

“I haven’t heard it and none of the players have … we’re staying put and that’s it,” Davey said from Junction Oval on Friday.

“We’ve obviously got our club [headquarters] in progress to be built over in Swan Street by 2010.

“I think we’ll just go into the game like how we’ve set ourselves to go into it. We just want to go out there with it being the Indigenous Round … and try to promote the game and also [it’s] a game for David Neitz with his retirement.

“We’ll wait and see until the final siren blows if we’ve improved from the last time we lost to Hawthorn by over 100 points; it will be a good challenge for us.”

Despite a heavy loss to Adelaide last week, Davey felt there were tangible signs that the Demons were heading in the right direction and pointed to the amount of youngsters blooded so far and the thrilling come-from-behind win over Fremantle as evidence.

The livewire forward urged Melbourne fans to come out and show their support for Indigenous Round and take the opportunity to pay tribute to the former skipper who announced his retirement from the game on Monday due to a debilitating neck injury.

“We really need our supporters to get behind us like they did in the Fremantle game and it’s a special week this week not only for the indigenous round but also for David Neitz,” he said.

“He’s been fantastic [for this club]; 306 games and he’s broken pretty much every record that Melbourne has to offer. [We’d] like everyone who’s had some association with the Melbourne Football Club to really get behind us on Sunday against Hawthorn at the MCG.

“He’s done a lot for the footy club and I guess deep down in the boys’ minds they’d like to go out and give their all and take a bit of David Neitz into Sunday.

“He’s obviously been a great servant of the footy club and it would be special to see a fair few red-and-blue flags flying around on the weekend to support David Neitz as well as the Melbourne Demons.”

Davey, originally from Darwin, has worked hard to promote the AFL’s Indigenous Round which he feels benefits both established AFL players and indigenous communities.

“It’s always good this time of the year; we feel special and it respects us in that we get a week of recognition,” he said.

“There’s over 70 [indigenous] players in the AFL at the moment and if they keep pumping it up the way they have and showing the support to indigenous communities and building grass roots footy then, who knows, in two years time there could be 150 indigenous players.”