Melbourne star Max Gawn lifts the lid on the Dees’ struggles and what has to change

Melbourne knew this season wouldn’t be easy despite playing a preliminary final last year, but the Demons weren’t expecting to start 2019 at 1-5. What’s the reason? MAX GAWN dismisses one theory as fake news.

Max Gawn says he's as big a fan of the Demons as every supporter.

The truth is, we knew there were no guarantees.

We knew that just because we made a preliminary final last year didn’t mean we were going to cruise through this season.

We knew that we couldn’t automatically pick up where we left off.

We knew that every year teams improve.

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The pain of a 1-5 start to 2019 is being felt by players and supporters, Max Gawn says. Picture: Getty Images

But what we didn’t know was that we would be 1-5. This isn’t the start anyone wants.

Losing hurts. It hurts even after you’ve won 21 in a row.

I was drafted in 2009 in perhaps the most unsuccessful era in Demons history. Yet somewhere, somehow, I fell in love with the red and blue.

I am an avid Demon supporter. I hurt when you hurt, I celebrate when you celebrate and I will listen to your feedback when things aren’t on track.

What hurts the most is the fact we are just not playing the way we know we can.

We have somehow gone away from playing a brand of footy that we started building since 2015.

Max Gawn says he is a Melbourne fan, just like every other Demons supporter. Picture: Getty Images

The players are hurting, the coaches are hurting, the staff and volunteers are hurting, friends and family are hurting and most of all you guys, the Demon faithful, are hurting. But we aren’t quitting; there is no way that we will quit.

This theory about us not being fit enough is a myth. Along with most teams across the competition, we had the majority of our group, including myself, post PB’s in our pre season time trial.

Yes, we had some key personnel out after surgery, but so does every team. It’s on those guys to get back to the fitness required, which they did.

There are so many rumours regarding our poor start to the year. Some might be true, they might all be fake news, but in my opinion we’ve gone away from what wins games — defence.

Max Gawn did a power of work against the Tigers. Picture: AAP

I know there’s other issues, as “Goody” has pointed out, around our connection going forward.

And it’s not a conscious thing, but we just haven’t improved our defence from last year. Other teams have.

We will need to fast track our improvement now and learn on the run. We will watch every bit of vision possible, we will listen and work with every coach and most importantly, we will train to improve and win.

This game doesn’t owe you anything. You have to take it and at the moment we are too easy to score against.

The Richmond game aside, we have just leaked goals. Every single player can take responsibility for every goal, not just the defender the gets led up on, but the midfielder for not defending the inside 50 or getting back to help the defender.

Gawn played perhaps his best game of the season against the Tigers, but it was not enough to get his side over the line. Picture: Getty Images

It’s the forward for not putting enough pressure on or getting up the ground to fill space.

The best teams this year rarely have a one-on-one contest in their defensive 50. We have plenty.

Is this an easy fix? Yes and no. If every team could do it, we would have scores of 36 to 30 in every game.

We have to become unconditional in our desire to defend. Believe it or not, you need bigger balls to be an aggressive defender than be an aggressive attacker.

Yes, we have only won one game, yes we have the most points against and yes our contested ball stats have fallen away. Is it all doom and gloom? No.

You also have to respect the teams that have beaten us, because in all five losses the other team thoroughly deserved the wins. We got outplayed in all of them.

Max Gawn says he is ready to face adversity with 21 of his “best mates” after the Anzac Day eve loss to Richmond. Picture: AAP

Now, we have 10 days between games. We have failed miserably in our first quarter of the season, but there are 16 games to go. I promise you that we are doing everything possible to get better.

All roads lead to the MCG next Saturday, against a Hawthorn side that, in the past 10 years, has punished teams that aren’t on song defensively.

What a challenge. I can’t wait. I can’t wait to respond to adversity — an adversity that most of our team hasn’t gone through before.

I can’t wait to respond with 21 of my best mates, who all hurting as much as each other.

Yet for all that, these are just words. You will see the actions and you can judge us on them because at the moment we deserve every bit of criticism we are getting.

Only actions can get us out of the situation we are in.

Originally published as Melbourne star Max Gawn lifts the lid on the Dees’ struggles and what has to change