The skipper has some feedback: Melbourne are not Gawn yet

Melbourne’s premiership skipper Max Gawn used to get feedback about his feedback.

He was told that he had a habit of ending the process with a gag to lighten the mood. So, he tried to stop the jokes that entered his mind during heart-to-hearts from exiting via his mouth.

Max Gawn dearly wants to lead his side to another premiership, this time in front of supporters, family and friends.Credit:Getty Images

He soon realised the tactic meant that his message wasn’t getting through to the person he was directing it at. His attempt at being what he felt was the archetypal AFL captain wasn’t working for him, or anyone else for that matter. It felt fake.

“If you are having coffee with me and you know me and you know that we have a laugh and I sit you down for a coffee for 10 minutes and I don’t say one thing funny that person is leaving that conversation saying, ‘I must be in the worst form ever’,” Gawn said.

Max Gawn leads out the Demons.Credit:Getty Images

He decided he would not try to be who he wasn’t. And it seemed to work.

“Being yourself in every conversation is vital, and it takes a while to find that, but it makes me much more comfortable. Hopefully, it makes other people more comfortable around me as well,” Gawn said.

It’s hard not to feel comfortable around Gawn unless you are an opponent in the heat of battle.

He can relate to most people in and around football, and their situations, good and bad. That’s what happens when you’ve had two knee reconstructions, have been caught sneaking in a dart on the way to training, slogged it out in the VFL, you’ve nearly been delisted, signed a big contract, become captain, won a flag and earned, without even a debate, six All-Australian selections, including one as skipper.

Topping it all off was becoming a premiership captain, as he did in 2021, the first sporting a beard since Sydney’s Jarrad McVeigh in 2012.

Listen to him relay his thinking when goal setting for 2022 was on the agenda in the days immediately after the drought-breaking flag, his first premiership in 20 years of playing football, and you can relate.

“I had this goal to win a flag and I finally hit it and then one day later you have to reset that goal and do it again. It seemed a bit weird at the time, and it took me a while to think, [hang on] I have a 20-year goal, I have to reset straight away?” Gawn said.

“But once you realise how competitive and how much you love the competition pretty quickly you want that taste again. It is a pretty addictive taste. I am a competitive person, I love training, I love running, I love working my arse off and those sorts of things get you back into the mode.”

The mode was evident early as the Demons won the opening 10 matches and Gawn led the charge. The man and the team were on a mission to win a flag at the MCG in front of supporters, family and friends.

His motivation to reach his 2022 goal crystallised each time he spoke to his dad, Robert, post-match.

“The phone call I have post-game with my dad … I can’t help smiling and that is when you realise it is not the disposals, the marks, the goals, the wins, it is making the people around you as joyful as possible and again that is why the urge is there to [win a flag] in front of friends and family,” Gawn said.

Max Gawn is a key player in the Demons quest for back to back flagsCredit:Getty Images

It’s easy to see why Gawn is smiling when chatting to his dad, a New Zealander who grew up on rugby.

“Every time I have a no-good game, he says ‘they didn’t kick it to you’ or ‘Geez, the umps weren’t friendly to you’.”

But since round 11 when Fremantle beat them up in the second half, there has been no sugarcoating any feedback as the team that builds their game on the contest and defence has struggled to win.

They have won six and lost seven of the past 13 matches. Gawn missed two of those victories with a syndesmosis injury.

They have not beaten Sydney, Geelong or Collingwood and have one win from two clashes with Fremantle.

On the positive side, they thrashed their semi-final opponent, the Brisbane Lions, in their two encounters but Gawn was not joking after the qualifying loss when he said that if they rock up thinking they will just beat the Lions by 10 goals, they will lose by 10 goals.

The Demons are not finishing games well, winning just 12 final quarters for the season, and have been outscored by 97 points in the last quarter since round 11. The connection between the midfielders and their forwards has become as reliable as dial-up internet, but Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin remains confident the team’s forwards are as dynamic as anyone if the ball movement is at its best.

“It’s not just our forward half, it’s our ability to execute, it’s our ability to win the turnover battle and our ability to win the ball. It’s all related,” Goodwin said.

In football clubs, everything is related, and it’s hard not to suspect that the Demons’ title defence has been good, but not close enough to perfect to once again lift the premiership cup.

After starting the year being forced to defend Goodwin after he hit the headlines, they had the famous dust-up between teammates Steven May and Jake Melksham (that was quickly resolved but saw May suspended) to on-field dramas such as the massive corkie and hairline fracture that has disrupted Norm Smith medallist Christian Petracca’s preparation this week.

Although conscious that none of their upcoming opposition will be easy to overcome, Gawn is not too perturbed about the year’s events.

“Adversity comes in all shapes and sizes,” Gawn said. “Is potentially the May-Melksham episode a major adversity or is losing to Collingwood on Queen’s Birthday a major [setback]? Is Goody being in the papers? How we dealt with it has been really, really good. ”

The group has shown no signs of disunity at any of those points, the major disconnect happening on-field where their ability to turn forward-half turnovers into scores has fluctuated while they conceded 11 goals from turnovers against the Swans, their second-highest tally in two seasons.

They have wasted chances, too, with Petracca kicking 19.30 this season as well as kicking out of bounds on the full 17 times.

Gawn says Goodwin’s message has remained clear and concise and the players’ faith in that message has not wavered.

“Simon always stays strong with that thing that is going to win us a flag and if we did that to really high levels we would win the game and that hasn’t been proven false,” Gawn said.

And his feedback immediately after the loss to Sydney was clear, without any jokes to soften the blow as his limping frame embodied the club’s back half of the season.

“This club has lost a lot of games when we have won contested possession and forward-half footy and we have won it again and managed to lose the game so there is a little trend there. I am pretty confident it was finals footy we dished up, but ill-discipline and then the last quarter got away from us.”

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