Max Gawn will walk into the MCG for his 250th game on Sunday as the defining figure in Melbourneโs modern era โ and, for many, the most influential ruckman of his generation.
Itโs a milestone that speaks not just to Gawnโs longevity, but to his dominance, durability and reinvention across one of the most volatile periods in the Demonsโ history.
Gawn has no interest in becoming one of those veterans who linger beyond their used-by date.
As he approaches the milestone, the Melbourne captain is not measuring his career in seasons survived, but in standards maintained โ a philosophy he underlined in round one when he overpowered St Kilda ruckman Tom De Koning in a decisive final-quarter performance that swung the game.
Itโs why Gawn finds himself drawn to sporting outliers such as LeBron James, Novak Djokovic and Lewis Hamilton โ not simply for their longevity, but for their refusal to fade.
โThe best thing about those guys is theyโre still performing,โ Gawn said.
โSo I donโt want to be just on the list for longevity.
โIf Iโm ever, and I donโt want to name players because that would be rude, but if Iโm ever playing like one of those guys who just held on for a bit too long, I would like to be tapped on the shoulder and told, โhey, you donโt want to be that guy.โโ
For Gawn, the milestone is not a marker of endurance. It is a test of relevance.
That mindset contrasts with that of his fellow 250-gamer and close mate Tom McDonald, whose journey to the same number has been defined by sheer persistence.
For Gawn, footy has โgiven me the worldโ. For McDonald, 250 games have been constructed on something far less glamorous: an ability to continually find a way.
McDonald does not speak of his career as a linear rise. It sounds more like a negotiation โ at times an uneasy one โ with the game itself.
Even in his 15th year, he wasnโt selected for the opening two rounds. His milestone comes about because of a hand injury to young defender Daniel Turner.
McDonald has played key back, key forward (he kicked 53 goals in 2018) and back-up ruck to Gawn, but heโs only once had a contract lasting more than two years.
โSo Iโve always been like on the two-year deals โฆ and then it was a bad 2020, wasnโt playing well, and it was, well, look for a trade.โ
He remembers sitting down with then Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley at the end of that season, but a move to the Magpies never eventuated.
โWe couldnโt get a trade done, so I had to find a way to play well again, and then I came back in 2021 and we won the flag.โ
McDonald speaks in terms of survival. โItโs always been an internal competition for me,โ he said.
โWhenever Iโve had the attitude of, โOh, f— them, like, they should be picking meโ, it never goes well. But when I go, โAll right, there is going to be an opportunity โฆ be readyโ, thatโs when it works.โ
Gawn admires McDonaldโs resilience, and his candour.
โHeโll openly talk about how heโs going, his feelings,โ Gawn said. โAnd thatโs why itโs so captivating to be on his journey.โ
Gawn, even as a premiership captain and one of the most recognisable figures in the game, is still searching for what he regards as success.
โI think success in the end is happiness, and Iโm not happy,โ he said.
It is not dissatisfaction so much as incompleteness โ the sense that, even at 250 games, there is something unfinished.
He has been the face of the club in good times and in bad.
He was the physical and spiritual leader of the 2021 finals series that broke the premiership drought.
He was the glue holding the playing group together when fights, factions and friction broke out across multiple seasons.
He was the one fronting the media when premiership players, including Clayton Oliver and Christian Petracca and Steven May, left the club.
But heโs never complained. He chooses not to.
โWhen I have a press conference at an Auskick launch the same day as Joel Smithโs [drug suspension] gets released, yeah, itโs a tough 10 minutes,โ he says.
โStraight after, I went into a dark corner and said to myself; โGeez, that was f—ing hard.โ But at the same time, there are 10 journos standing there all interested in what Iโm saying. What a great job that is.โ
That perspective extends beyond football.
โFootyโs given me the world,โ Gawn said. โSo when someone asked me โฆ whatโs it taken away? Well, thereโs a really simple answer. Itโs taken away f—ing nothing. Iโve lived one of, if not the, life that the majority of young boys want to live. And Iโve loved every minute of it.
โYes, Iโve worked on that mindset, but โฆ football has given me a unique chance to get into a community that I deeply love.
โThere are some good things in there and some bad things in there, but the bad things are things Iโd still rather be doing than working at a Dominoโs Pizza like I was when I was 16.โ
Gawn and McDonald did not immediately connect when they arrived at Melbourne โ Gawn a self-described โladโ and McDonald more reserved, almost studious. They were operating on entirely different wavelengths.
โI thought Tom was a nerd,โ Gawn laughed.
โIn fairness, I was,โ McDonald admitted.
โWe both needed to come into the centre a little bit,โ Gawn said.
Any distance between them was compounded by the environment they walked into. McDonald still shakes his head at the state of the club in those early years.
โI donโt think people remember how bad it was in that 2011-2013 period,โ he said.
โThey forget really quickly how bad financially the club was, how much of a shitshow, just everything was.
โTrying to get people to come to the game and play here in front of 9000; it was diabolical, really.โ
That context matters. Both careers were forged in instability โ shaped as much by what Melbourne was then as what it has become.
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Sam McClure is an award-winning AFL journalist and broadcaster.Connect via X or email.
