Melbourne captain Max Gawn dismissed an attack on his team’s fitness from Nathan Buckley following Alice Spring loss

After Collingwood legend Nathan Buckley attacked the fitness of Melbourne players after an ugly Alice Springs loss and the Demons’ skipper has had his reply.

Melbourne captain Max Gawn . (Photo by Graham Denholm/Getty Images)

Melbourne captain Max Gawn has once again defended his club’s culture after an attack on the fitness of the Demons players by former Collingwood coach Nathan Buckley in the wake of an Alice Springs thumping by Fremantle last weekend.

It was the second loss to a West Australian side in three games, having gone down to the lowly Eagles in Perth, and Gawn had already described the two performances as the “worst in five years” while superstar teammate Christian Petracca said he was “embarrassed” by how they played.

But after seeing footage of the Melbourne players in the rooms after the 92-point loss to the Dockers, Buckley twice questioned whether or not the players were in the right shape for an elite AFL team, first on morning radio and then on his Fox Footy program on Monday night.

“Watching this vision I just thought to myself… one, the energy is not great… but I had a thought come into my head [that] this doesn’t look like a hard, fit top-four side. A little bit of body shape. I just don’t think that is a hard, fit unit. I’m not expecting energy after a 92-point loss but they’re not as hard and fit as I’d expect,” Buckley told On the Couch.

"They don't look as hard and fit as I would expect a top 4 AFL team to look."

Nathan Buckley's honest assessment of Melbourne after a disastrous performance on Sunday.@SENBreakfast | #AFLpic.twitter.com/oLYqSyvRsU

— SEN 1116 (@1116sen) June 2, 2024

His opinion was not one widely backed by other pundits and while Gawn didn’t address Buckley’s comments specifically on Wednesday was adamant his team’s culture was “where it needs to be” but conceded they had big issues to address on field.

Gawn said the annual visit from former coach and champion MND crusader Neale Daniher this week also provided a “circuit breaker” and reinforced the need for actions not words to turn things around.

“With the week that we have had you can get in your own head and talk a lot and there’s a lot of talk going on,” he said.

“There’s a lot of talk in our four walls about how we are going to fix what happened. But in the end it’s what Neale says, it’s actions. It really does speak true this week. That’s what we have to do.

“We’re not the team we want to be. But I have stood here a few times and defended our culture and I’ll keep defending our culture. I think it’s where it needs to be off the field, but it’s not where it needs to be on the field.”

Max Gawn on Wednesday. (Photo by Graham Denholm/Getty Images)

Gawn said there were some “pretty honest truths” his teammates had to face this week in a review of last week’s game which painted an ugly picture of what the Demons had been producing.

But seeking “revenge” for last year’s qualifying final loss to Collingwood in Monday’s King’s Birthday clash could help narrow the focus and get more hunger back at Melbourne to do what’s needed.

“We think we are one of the better defensive and contest teams but in the last six weeks we are not. If we want to get back to it, we have to go out there and do it,” he said.

“We have a look at the numbers and see where we sit AFL-wide and they are nowhere near numbers we think we can do.

“I think it’s pretty cool you’ll have a pretty hungry Steven May out there wanting to make sure the Pies don’t score, a pretty hungry Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver out thereto make sure we win clearance, and a pretty hungry Bailey Fritsch, Kozzie Pickett to score some goals.”

Originally published as Melbourne captain Max Gawn dismissed an attack on his team’s fitness from Nathan Buckley following Alice Spring loss