“I think a breath of fresh air,” Gawn told this masthead when asked about the biggest change King had brought to the Demons.
“A lot of us, Simon [Goodwin] himself, were carrying a lot of baggage after not nailing our finals campaign in 2022-23 and bottoming out and not going well in ’24.
“The fact that’s been given a whole new fresh start – we’ve got a coach who wasn’t involved in that, a CEO who wasn’t involved in that, and a president who wasn’t involved in that. We’ve got multiple players who weren’t involved in that.
“It’s almost like if you were still stuck in that era, we’ve moved past that.”
On the eve of his seventh season as skipper, Gawn said vice captain Jack Viney, Jake Lever, Tom Sparrow and Trent Rivers all were capable of succeeding him as skipper but anointed Langdon for the role. Langdon led the Dees in their practice match last week against North Melbourne.
“If I gave it up today, Jack Viney, if I gave it up next year, I like Ed Langdon,” Gawn said of who he’d opt for as Melbourne’s next skipper. “I reckon he’s got a bit about him.”
Not that Gawn has any plans of vacating the post.
“I still love the captain part of it,” Gawn said. “The thing I love is interacting with my teammates. That’s the bit I love about football.
“I love training. Casey’s great because no journos come to Casey so it’s literally just 45 players and their coaches. I get to lead my men, they get me to act like an 18-year-old with the Gen Zs, [it’s] so much fun.
“That’s the bit I love. I love training, having conversations, and I love interacting with young men. I do love leading, I love the job, I don’t take the job lightly.”
‘I knocked him out’: Toby Greene reveals he punched his father after AFL match
Greater Western Sydney captain Toby Greene has revealed he punched his father in the rooms after a game, embarrassed by his drunken behaviour.
GWS star Toby Greene.Credit: AFL Photos
Greene made the revelation in the first episode of the Amazon Prime Video series Final Siren: Inside the AFL where he details his troubled relationship with his estranged father Michael Greene.
Greene’s father was jailed for nine months, reduced on appeal, for assaulting a female police officer while watching his son’s Giants in their heavy loss to Richmond in the 2019 grand final.
The Giants star’s dressing room confrontation with his father came earlier in his career.
“I knocked him out in the change rooms because he was drunk and carrying on,” Greene said in the series, which premiered on Wednesday night.
“He’s pretty loud and boisterous and he’s extremely drunk. And I was just embarrassed and just told him to f— off and punched him. So, yeah, it’s hard.
“Like the reason I love footy is because of him and got into it. That’s what I’ll take with me, and then you learn your lessons from some things that he’s done that you can’t do.”
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Greene spoke publicly in 2020 about his father’s troubles in The Phil Davis Podcast, hosted by former GWS captain Phil Davis, saying his father had a “profound impact” on his career but “some of the stuff outside of that left a bit to be desired”.
He was more candid in the series.
“Ten, 15 years drinking alcohol and drugs probably taken a fair toll on his body and brain,” Greene said.
Greene is among the best players of his generation but has an extensive tribunal rap sheet, racking up $47,850 in fines in his 14-season career. He has also been rubbed out for 16 games, his most recent suspension coming in last year’s Sydney Derby in July.
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The series shows a conversation between Greene and his wife Georgia Stirton in the days after the derby, where the player is berated for what he describes as his latest “brain fart”.
Stirton outlined the impact the player’s poor on-field discipline had on their family, saying it led to online abuse from trolls.
“People are saying, ‘I hope family members die’ or, ‘You should kill yourself’,” Stirton said in the documentary.
“Or I have a DM saying, ‘You know, I saw him cheating with girls’ and, ‘Has he bashed you up?’
