Max Gawn defends Demons culture after Smith’s positive drug test
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Melbourne captain Max Gawn has defended the Demons’ culture after the shock revelation that forward Joel Smith had returned a positive cocaine test on match day after the round 23 win over Hawthorn.
The positive test was the latest incident to raise questions about Melbourne after their response to the qualifying final incident between Collingwood’s Brayden Maynard and Angus Brayshaw, before they were bundled out of the finals in straight sets.
Melbourne leaders Max Gawn (right) and Christian Petracca (left) at this year’s Brownlow Medal count. Credit: Getty
They then had defender Steven May claim at their awards night that the Demons were a better team than Collingwood and should have “smoked them”, allowed other clubs to consider Clayton Oliver a potential trade target before shutting it down, followed by Smith’s positive test that has led to a provisional suspension and a probable three-month ban.
Gawn has been at the Demons since drafted in 2009 and helped build them from cellar-dweller to a premiership team.
“I am certainly very bullish on the culture that we have built over the last three or four years, that it can withstand adversity like this and we are able to get in the top four again, like we have in the last three years,” Gawn told Channel 7.
The premiership captain is one of the most respected skippers in the game and had Oliver living with him for a period.
“I am in pretty good dialogue with him and we talk every day, and he’s been at my house for a while, so I think Clayton is going really well,” he said.
“I understand the noise that is coming around Clayton could bring someone down, but I feel like the support that he has got around him will help him get through it.
Melbourne have remained quiet in recent weeks amid the criticism they have attracted, putting out two statements in relation to Oliver and asking for his privacy to be respected after he went to hospital in an ambulance after a seizure last week.
“There has been some stuff over the last few weeks, but I feel like this happens at most clubs – adversity here, adversity there – obviously our adversity has all come at once,” Gawn said.
Smith returned the positive sample after the round-23 match against Hawthorn at the MCG and was notified of the result last week. He played three matches, including two finals, before the results were known. Melbourne lost both finals he played in.
If found guilty of breaching the AFL’s anti-doping code, Smith would face a three-month suspension if he can prove the use of the banned substance was not related to sporting performance and it’s use was out of competition.
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