Sam Mitchell has labelled Max Gawn arguably the player of his generation after the Demons skipper not only dismantled Hawthorn but declared he would not be sitting out a game any time soon to help preserve his season.
Mitchell was full of admiration for veteran Gawn’s ability to adapt mid-match and mastermind a centre square domination after Hawthorn gained the early upper hand in their MCG clash.
“I think obviously Max Gawn is … it’d be hard to argue he’s not the player of this generation,” Mitchell said after his side had copped a 39-point drubbing.
“I mean, there are other players that you could easily say that about, you know, Bontempelli, or whoever, as well.
“But in the first quarter, I think we won centre bounces plus-five, or five-zip or something like that, but then we lose them by 10 for the rest of the game.”
Gawn, 34, inspired Melbourne’s second-half dominance, which delivered 12 goals to Hawthorn’s seven.
He had eight clearances among his 18 possessions in his 257th game, and is showing no signs of slowing down.
On a weekend that debate raged over Collingwood’s wisdom to rest veteran Scott Pendlebury from a match they lost to Sydney by six points, Gawn rejected suggestions that Melbourne should be cutting back his game time.
He did not have an issue with returning to the field of play for the final 10 minutes of their Hawthorn victory despite the match being in Melbourne’s keeping.
“I rested throughout the game, to be fair,” Gawn said.
“It got to the point where if I sat off, I’m probably sitting at 65 per cent game time – then it requires top-up running and the head of performance guys get involved, so I was probably better to get back out there.”
The 2021 premiership skipper said the bigger picture at play was managing minutes alongside emerging young ruckman Max Heath, 23, who was playing his fifth game of the year against Hawthorn and ninth of his career.
“Max is a weapon at centre bounce, so the way the interchange is this year with five on the bench, particularly if we don’t get any injuries throughout the game, there’s a world where Max Heath can just play 40 per cent game time like he has,” Gawn said.
“Then there’s a world where I can sit forward pocket and Max Heath can ruck, so I’m enjoying it. I’m finding a little new lease on life to be able to go learn how to play forward again.”
Gawn said different clubs had different approaches. He acknowledged that Pendlebury, Dayne Zorko and Patrick Dangerfield were rested at different stages of their seasons.
“I get it. I am in the top 10 oldest, but Pendles is five years older than me,” he said.
“I think I might be the only one to play every game (this year) out of that group, and this is probably why because we’re doing it like this (balancing game time with Heath).
“I actually feel like the best way to do it is within games, but I have to make sure I bring my intensity.”
Pendlebury missed two of Collingwood’s past three games in the lead-up to his milestone match against West Coast Eagles at the MCG next Saturday when he will break North Melbourne great Brent Harvey’s 432-game record.
The Magpies drew one of those games with Hawthorn and lost the other to Sydney.
But Melbourne coach Steven King said resting Gawn was a luxury the Demons could not yet afford, despite being 7-3 after 10 games and eying off a return to the finals for the first time since 2023.
“I think we’re not in a position to be resting players in terms of, I’d like to think I’m managing Max in game at the moment with Max Heath playing,” King said.
“Maybe when you win a few more games, you can be a bit more strategic around their planning, but we’ve got a fair few out at the moment as well.
“I think Max is not someone who takes the managing too well … but if he’s ready to play, you’d like him to play as many games he can.”
The Demons have been a revelation under new coach King, winning games and playing an exciting brand of football.
But when asked how they had so quickly adapted to life after Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver, Gawn said, “I couldn’t care about the people that aren’t here, I’m pretty excited about the people that are”.
“We’ve got Tom Sparrow who’s firing on all cylinders and played another blinder today, Trent Rivers came back in and he was super, Kozzie (Pickett) does Kozzie things, which is great, and Steeley (Jack Steele) and I are a bit of the work-hard guys,” Gawn said.
“We aren’t as flashy as the other three in there, but you need that type of player, particularly with Jack Viney not in the team at the moment.”
Gawn said improving key defender Daniel Turner was ready to take on the best forwards in the competition, working in tandem with Jake Lever, which allowed the Dees to use Harrison Petty as a forward.
Petty kicked the first two goals of the match and three for the game against Hawthorn.
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