AFL news: Melbourne v Richmond practice match notes and highlights
The Max Gawn and Brodie Grundy combo stole the show as the Demons cruised to victory over the Tigers, but how did every other player fare? Check out our full player ratings here.
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Who said Gawndy wasn’t going to work?
After a pre-season where the debate oscillated on whether Melbourne could turn two of the best starting ruckmen into a lethal ruck-forward tandem combination, Max Gawn and Brodie Grundy let their footy do the talking in a powerful practice match statement against Richmond at Casey Fields.
In the Demons’ last hitout before their Round 1 clash with Western Bulldogs, Gawn and Grundy collectively carved out six first-half goals as they split their time in the ruck and midfield in the 50-point win over the Tigers.
The synergy between the pair looked impressive and if that can translate into performances in the season proper it will cause multiple headaches for opposition coaches.
Gawn started in the ruck with Grundy on the bench. But almost as soon as the former Magpie came onto the ground, the Demons skipper slipped forward to kick the second goal of the match.
Grundy rucked for a period before taking himself forward late in the first quarter. Two big grabs resulted in two Grundy goals, the last after the quarter-time siren which put the Demons five goals clear.
Grundy made it three goals with a 50m penalty in the second quarter. He hasn’t kicked that many goals in an AFL game before although he did once kick three in a VFL game.
Gawn nailed two more in the second term, making it six majors for the big men, while Tom McDonald also looked sharp in attack, kicking three goals.
DION BENCHED
You could almost hear the collective groans of Richmond fans early in the first term and this time it had nothing to do with the scoreboard.
Dion Prestia is one of Richmond’s most important players but his wretched luck with injuries rolled on at Casey Fields after he was sidelined early with a strained pec muscle.
He sat on the bench with ice on his left shoulder before the medical staff ruled him out of the game as a precaution.
He gave a thumbs up to the crowd as he got some more miles in his legs in a short running session at half-time.
What that means for his chances of playing in Thursday week’s round 1 clash with Carlton is unclear.
But the Tigers will be desperate for him to prove his fitness to take on the Blues.
His absence put more pressure on the Richmond midfield which meant Trent Cotchin had to abandon his forward time in the second half to go back on the ball.
New Tigers Tim Taranto (33) and Jacob Hopper (23) combined for almost 60 possessions, while Dustin Martin spent the entire game playing forward.
In his first game since recovering from an appendicitis, Liam Baker had 36 disposals, while Christian Petracca (32) and Clayton Oliver (31) were outstanding.
FALCON FIELDS
Footy’s back and so are the falcons.
There were two Tigers with decent headaches in the first half of the clash at Casey Fields - one of them from friendly fire, the other from misjudgment.
An errant kick from Nick Vlastiun smashed into Ivan Soldo’s head from point blank range, but thankfully the big man managed to shake it off after some initial discomfort.
Then soon after Noah Cumberland misjudged the flight of the footy when he was going for a mark … only to have the Sherrin hit him on the noggin’.
In a sense, those errors mirrored Richmond’s start to the game as the Demons kicked the first six goals to set the scene.
ROUND 1 v GROUP 1?
It wasn’t quite Kevin Sheedy watching Bel Esprit compete in the 2002 Blue Diamond Stakes from the coaches’ box at Docklands, but you had to feel for new Demon Lachie Hunter at 4.20pm on Saturday.
He was contesting the ball on the wing at Casey Fields at that time thinking about trying to lock in a Round 1 berth, while the exciting colt he and his dad Mark part-own Elliptical was racing in the Group 1 Australian Guineas.
Elliptical ended up running seventh in the big race, beaten only 2.4 lengths, but Hunter would be pleased with his own performance, having 26 touches, while kicking a superb last term goal.
INSIDE MEETING WHICH BROUGHT TAP BROTHERS TOGETHER
Jon Ralph
In the hours after Melbourne’s crushing straight-sets exit last September, the mood among players was akin to a football confessional.
Amid the pain and confusion a picture emerged detailing the full extent of injuries carried by many of the club’s stars in that night’s defeat.
For captain Max Gawn, that period spent drowning sorrows was also a chance to unburden himself of the complex emotions of that crazy final day of Melbourne’s 2022 season.
Six months on from that September 9 MCG finals defeat, Gawn finally revealed to the Herald Sun this week that he had been ruled out of that final — only to win a last-minute reprieve.
The painful hip injury the club had attempted to play down had been so restrictive young forward Jacob Van Rooyen was poised to make a shock finals debut against the Brisbane Lions in his place.
Then Gawn did what he has done so often before — play through pain and adversity — except this time nothing went to plan.
“Yeah, I was out. I couldn’t get through training on the Friday morning,” Gawn said.
“And then I had a couple of scans … had another go in the afternoon about 6pm at night.
“I got through that session. That was a whirlwind. I was in the team and out of the team and back in the team. I don’t have a magical diagnosis for you but it was definitely in the hip area and it certainly played up in those two finals. And to be fair, in the first half I felt really good.
“Then it all came caving in during the second half. So did I make a bad decision? If we won, was I even playing in a prelim? I don’t know. Who cares.”
Watching high in the MCG stands that night aware Gawn was carrying a serious injury was like watching a remote controlled car freshly unwrapped on Christmas morning.
Fuelled by a full battery in those early moments Gawn was clearly the game’s dominant force before that energy ebbed away to leave him sapped of power and strength.
He hobbled from contest to contest as the Demons gave up a 22-point halftime lead as Brisbane won through to the preliminary final with a 13-point victory.
“It was certainly in my head space as the game wore on. But I tried to stay in the moment as much as I could,” Gawn said.
“I was doing quite well to stay in the moment in that game to make sure our team didn’t know there was anything wrong. We had five or six guys in the same position that game, to be honest.
“All I can do now is make sure I don’t get in that position again. So keeping myself nice and fit and strong and doing some extra stuff in and around my body to make sure it’s fit and healthy for that time of the year.”
If Gawn second-guessed his decision to play for a moment, his teammate Christian Petracca sees it differently.
As one of those wounded warriors – playing with a hairline fracture in his leg – he said it was remarkable Gawn kept his injury secret.
“The best thing about Gawny is when he has an injury you don’t even know. So I honestly didn’t know he had a hip injury until after the game when we had a few beers and he was talking about it,” Petracca said.
“It speaks volumes of the person he is. He is such a barometer of the footy club from an energy point of view, so to not let anyone know about that and distract anyone, to hide that and park it and compartmentalise it is pretty special.”
NEW RUCK JOURNEY BEGINS
At 31 years of age Gawn will enter the 2023 season with legacy secure even if his career ended tomorrow.
A drought-breaking Melbourne premiership captain, a five-goal 2022 preliminary final hero, a well-paid athlete with a diverse portfolio of interests, media responsibilities and businesses including multiple Melbourne eateries.
He speaks to the Herald Sun this week as the official ambassador for Pepperjack winery’s partnership with the 2023 Toyota AFL season.
Last year’s sixth All-Australian jumper equalled Dean Cox’s tally, and a seventh would surely lodge a compelling case for Gawn as the modern era’s great ruckman.
And yet Gawn’s decision to embrace new ruck partner Brodie Grundy speaks of why he is so beloved by the Melbourne faithful.
Gawn knows the football world is sceptical of the new union but he says he could not be more excited about how it might unfold.
If there is uncertainty about exactly how this partnership will work, what is true is that without Gawn’s overt wooing of Grundy in their first meeting the Pies ruckman would never have agreed to a trade.
When did he actually hear about the potential trade first?
“Towards the end. I certainly hadn’t given up on Luke (Jackson) for a long time and I know the club hadn’t either. Those chats came with a bit of a rush towards the end but as soon as it came to me I was a bit surprised.
“Straight after the conversation I had with the people in the know, your (list boss) Tim Lambs, your (Simon) Goodwins, your Alan Richardsons, we worked out that this guy is a once-in-a-generation ruckman who wants to come to your football club. Well, of course.
“If it’s going to help me lift some silverware towards the end of the year I am more than happy. I will sit on the bench for the whole game if that’s going to win us a flag.”
“It was basically a pitch to both of us, and then when we both were sitting there nodding to each other during the presentation, it was like, ‘This is going to work. This is cool, we are doing something new, we are doing something creative. We are not going to get absolutely smashed playing 95 per cent ruck time, we can go forward and kick goals, we can do some other things in our team and bring value in different ways.’”
Tap Brothers 👬 Photo Day edition.#DemonSpiritpic.twitter.com/HfiFpTYCXb
— Melbourne Demons (@melbournefc) February 27, 2023
HOW RUCK SPLIT WILL WORK
For Gawn the capacity to be selfless is why he is such an obvious choice as captain, not a by-product of his recent success.
“Team success certainly comes before team accolades and I have been lucky enough to win a few. I certainly think if I was sitting here with zero All Australians and zero best and fairests I would still be the same. I would still sacrifice my role. It’s led by the team.
“We have got a lot of midfielders playing 50 or 60 per cent midfield time in James Harmes and Tom Sparrow for the greater good. Christian Petracca could be the best midfielder in the game but he goes forward for long periods of time to give those guys game time in the middle. If you are not doing it in our team it stands out. If I am sitting there in the ruck and I don’t let Brodie come in, it just stands out. And I am not just doing it because everyone else is doing it, I really want us doing it as well because I want us winning.”
Petracca says Gawn has lived that mantra rather than preached it to his teammates.
“I think it’s amazing. It speaks volumes of the person Gawny is. He is a selfless person., He is the captain and leader of our footy club. You saw in the Grand Final when he was able to go forward and let Luke Jackson go into the ruck, that gets highlighted. This year when you can include someone like Grundy and the calibre of person and player he is, it’s pretty scary. We were at the coterie dinner last night and Grundy was saying him and Gawny being in the meeting and talking of Gawny wanting him at the club, it just shows he can put his ego aside in wanting the club to be great.”
Gawn says he is enlivened by the prospect of playing serious time as an actual forward rather than a ruckman rolling into the forward line to provide a mismatch.
It means he has learnt detailed team structures, worked on his sometimes-wayward goalkicking with Mark Williams, devoted himself to that specific craft.
The Demons will balance the hurt of crashing out in straight sets with the reality that as premiers they were able to win 16 home-and-away games before their rivals – and some injuries – caught up with them.
Gawn pauses when asked if this Demons list stacked with A-plus stars is too good not to win only a single flag.
“It’s a question I don’t know how to answer at the moment. The expression only one flag … The way you said that just undervalues what one flag is. One flag is an incredible achievement and I was ten years into a career that hadn’t played finals yet.
“So to have got to where I am now with the football club breaking the drought is incredible.
“But yes, I do agree this club has an incredibly talented team, all in the right age bracket. The majority of us have played around 100 games together. We really want to, not cash in, but play really good footy together these next couple of seasons.
“I don’t want to undervalue what a flag means so if I retire and it’s one flag next to my name I will be happy as Larry. But if I retire with two I will be even happier.”
Grundy is the key acquisition but the Demons also brought in key forward Josh Schache and a star Bulldog looking for a fresh start in Lachie Hunter.
The question marks over his professionalism in those final years at the Western Bulldogs come well-advertised, but Gawn could not be more impressed with the 28-year-old’s first months at Melbourne.
“I know there is noise around some of the stuff about his off-field stuff in his previous side. I can only take him as the Lachie Hunter I know. He has come into this football club already a ready-made player but also a ready-made leader,” Gawn said.
“He’s a good friend already in the space of four months and I am excited to do these next couple of years with him and (to be in his) life past that. I have got no qualms. I called him in and around the trade period. I didn’t bring up anything to do with what he has done at the Western Bulldogs. Or anything he’s done from age zero to 27 years. I am only interested in what he is doing from here on in.
“We have got two guys who are almost leading the wingers’ club across the competition in one team. So I am excited to see it.”
So Gawn will get back to work with a will to learn about his new ruck partner and the thrill of buying into being the best key forward he can be.
Melbourne’s bold new experiment could turn out to be triumphant or disastrous, but with Gawn at the helm it won’t fail from lack of commitment.
“To be honest I have been playing footy for 13 or 14 years and been training as a ruckman all these years,” Gawn said.
“To be able to learn a couple of new roles, I am not just that ruckman who goes around the ground any more. It’s really exciting. I can’t wait to see what happens this year.”
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Originally published as AFL news: Melbourne v Richmond practice match notes and highlights
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