Melbourne captain Max Gawn says constant player upheaval including with Christian Petracca became too much

Two of his superstar teammates wanted out and they missed the finals again, and Melbourne captain Max Gawn has opened up on the massive impact it had on him.

Melbourne captain Max Gawn has revealed the mental fatigue he endured during another tumultuous season that intensified when superstar teammate Christian Petracca almost left the club, saying the ordeal started to “wear me down”.

The Demons’ off-season was full of turbulence, with midfield star Clayton Oliver also linked to a move to Geelong, even meeting with Cats players and officials during the trade period.

He stayed put, with Melbourne officials adamant he will honour a contract that stretches to 2030, as will Petracca, who it was claimed fell out with senior Demons officials over the handling of his season-ending injury.

Petracca even missed the club’s best and fairest, choosing instead to attend a Red Bull training camp in Austria, with approval from his coaches, and has subsequently made a commitment to being his best in 2025.

Max Gawn and Christian Petracca in happier times. Picture: Tess Gellie/Melbourne FC

But in a revealing podcast interview, conducted on Brownlow Medal day, before the trade speculation around Oliver intensified, Gawn, a champion of the club’s culture that helped steer them to the 2021 premiership, said the walls were closing in.

He said intense focus on the club’s culture, heightened by Petracca’s wish to get out, took the heaviest toll that Gawn could remember.

Gawn said he even felt like he didn’t “trust” everything that was going on at the club.

“The latest stuff with Trac, it’s worn me down and I don’t like that because I feel like I have always been able to handle it, but it’s starting to wear me down,” he told the Empowering Leaders podcast.

“It’s something I’ve always been proud of that I feel like I have a good handle of creating the most successful era and I can see it getting chewed, constantly chipped at and chipped at and I’m constantly trying to defend it.

“I know what’s happening in the four walls, but you are never going to trust that with regular spotfires. It’s been a delicate little time.”

Gawn and Clayton Oliver are good mates. Picture: Andrew Henshaw

The Melbourne captain defied the tumult at his own club, which missed the finals, to win a seventh All-Australian blazer in 2024.

Gawn revealed the conversation he had with Oliver after the 2022 season when the four-time best and fairest winner was sent away from pre-season training early to deal with off-field issues and ended up living with his captain for a month.

With the post-season trade talks about Oliver coming after the podcast interview, Gawn said he saw positive change in his teammate and friend.

“We had a really long chat one night and I said to him it had to happen. He said ‘yep’,” Gawn said.

“It was about a month, it was off-season, I was going away on and off, he almost came with me to Fiji.

“It was something we both felt like needed to happen, we are really close. Clayton was a really nice moment for me as a leader, to see that change happen.”

Petracca and Oliver will both be at Melbourne next season and former captain Nathan Jones has returned to the club as midfield coach and peacemaker as the Demons attempt to repair relationships with their key midfielders.

Originally published as Melbourne captain Max Gawn says constant player upheaval including with Christian Petracca became too much