Melbourne might be in scintillating touch ahead of Sunday's Telstra Dome clash with Essendon, however star midfielder Travis Johnstone is refusing to buy into the hype.

"It's a trap we've fallen into in the past but as a group we've matured now and that's not even in the equation," Johnstone said at training on Friday.

"We're going to treat this as any other game. We're really looking forward to the Bombers because they're a real hard at it team and they're going to challenge us," he said.

Essendon have already begun the mind games, with coach Kevin Sheedy having already said they can knock over the in-form Demons.

Johnstone isn't buying into the argument.

"We don't worry about what they're doing. The only thing we worry about is their set ups and the way they've been playing and do what we've got to do during the week and we'll be right."

Johnstone also assured Demon fans that the side would not be falling into the trap of becoming complacent.

"Every week we've raised to the challenge of each week. Every game's been different. I think everyone's been waiting for us to fall over and get complacent.

"As a group we've addressed that and are working really hard at it and hopefully we can keep on our winning ways," he said.

"We work so hard at the start of the week. Work on what we've got to do and study the opposition and that hasn't been a factor this year."

With a well-deserved break after their game on Sunday, Johnstone is unsure what the Demons will do after this week.

"We haven't been told about that yet. We didn't want to get too far ahead of ourselves and be thinking about the break.

"We've got Essendon this week, which is going to be a real hard game for us.
After we get through Sunday, we'll find out what we're going to do," he said.

Melbourne has only played the two games at Telstra Dome this season and has lost both times, although both were earlier in the year when the side had yet to win a game.

"That was the first two rounds. The Carlton game we got outplayed and that was disappointing and the Bulldogs, as you can still see, are a really good team. We weren't in good form.

"I think our record's pretty good at Telstra Dome, so there's no real worry about that," Johnstone said.