AFL Grand Final 2021: How skinny kid Max Gawn became the captain of the Demons

As Melbourne chases its first flag since 1964, not many predicted it would be Max Gawn leading the Dees into battle. This is the skipper’s unconventional journey to the top.

Max Gawn of the Demons leads the Dees onto the MCG. Pic: Michael Klein

Jack Trengove discovered there was something unique, almost quirky, about Max Gawn the moment he met him when they were united as Melbourne players by the 2009 draft.

A dozen years on, and through the prism of a mateship that has outlasted their time as teammates, Trengove still laughs at the first words that Gawn said to him at Casey Fields.

“You are lucky to be here, mate,” Gawn joked with new teammate. “If I hadn’t done my knee, I would have been the No.2 draft pick, and you would have been at Richmond.”

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It was a bold comment from a raw, beanpole ruckman recovering from a knee reconstruction.

Gawn had been a speculative draft selection by the Demons – at pick 34 – after missing most of the under-18s season due to his first knee reconstruction.

Trengove had been one of the most highly-touted draftees in the country, selected as the Demons’ pick 2.

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Max Gawn prepares for his first grand final at Perth Stadium. Picture: Michael Klein

The Tigers had pick 3, which they used on a Bendigo Pioneers kid called Dustin Martin.

“He just had that confidence from the outset,” Trengove recalled about the young man who quickly became one of his best mates.

“You could just tell he did things a bit differently and enjoyed the idea that he was a bit different to everyone else. If anything, he thrived on it.

“To be successful at this level, you have to have that inner confidence. Max had some confidence, but it is something he has worked on, too.”

Gawn, now 29, will lead Melbourne into Saturday’s Grand Final against the Western Bulldogs as the club chases its first flag since 1964.

Fresh from one of the great individual finals efforts, kicking five goals in a preliminary final, Gawn will aim to join the legendary Ron Barassi as a Melbourne premiership captain – the club’s first in 57 years.

But his journey from a knockabout kid to one of the most recognisable faces in Australian sport hasn’t been conventional.

Nothing about Gawn ever has been.

Through the highs and lows, he steadfastly refused to change his personality to fit his vocation – even when he became captain in 2020.

Trengove, who left the Demons four years ago, said: “It’s been an incredible transformation … no one would ever have predicted he would be standing where he is today as the captain of a Grand Final team.”

Gawn’s long-time mate, TAB’s Nick Quinn, agrees. “You have got a captain who is a bit self-deprecating, who has a bit of fun, but the thing about Max is he just knows when he has to knuckle down.

“He has always trained hard and been a good team person, but no one would tell you that they saw this coming … no one.”

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Demons great Jim Stynes presented Max Gawn with No.37 when he arrived at the club.

RAW TALENT

Young giants standing 208cm are rarely hidden gems, but astute player manager Anthony McConville reckoned he found one in 2009.

Gawn was at the Sandringham Dragons, but wasn’t setting the world on fire early in the season.

“I recall a tall, lanky kid who had this raw ability and I thought there was a huge upside in him,” McConville said. “The question was, did he know that?

“I saw flashes of ability … his capacity to get the ball at ground level for a guy of his size and he took some nice contested marks.

“I could see his potential and was crystal balling two, three or four years down the track.”

Gawn’s parents, Rob and Sandra, came to Australia from New Zealand and his two brothers, Todd and Adam, had also been born there.

Max was born in Australia, but did spend some time as a child in the town of Greymouth, on New Zealand’s South Island.

“He didn’t come from a typical footy background, and his parents were a little surprised when I told them I thought he could not only play AFL football, but have a successful career,” said McConville, who now heads up Mac’s Sports Promotions.

Gawn had suffered a serious knee injury early in that under-18s season.

Quinn remembers standing with him at a game that year, asking which players would be drafted.

“I said to Max, ‘Who should I be looking at who might get drafted?’ and he was like ‘This guy ... and this guy’. I didn’t even think to ask him about himself because he just seemed so raw.”

The Sunday Herald Sun’s Jackie Epstein was at Gawn’s house — along with his family and 20 friends — on draft day, documenting the moment.

Gawn’s mum told her, “He used to eat six Vita Brits for breakfast when he was two! He’d have them in hot water and cold milk then he’d follow up by eating his brothers’ toast.”

The quirks were there from the start, it seemed.

But McConville’s belief in Gawn came to fruition when the Demons called his name out in a draft group of Tom Scully, Trengove, Jordan Gysberts, Luke Tapscott and Jack Fitzpatrick.

Melbourne president Jim Stynes, who had only been diagnosed with cancer five months earlier, instantly saw something in the ruck hope.

“I can still remember Jim saying, ‘This bloke is a special person’ and he used to always say that when someone is a special, terrific person off the field, that can often translate on the field,” Stynes’ widow Sam Ludbey-Stynes said this week.

Stynes presented Gawn with the No.37 he had first worn at Melbourne. A few years after Stynes’ passing in 2012, Gawn would take on the No.11 the Irishman made famous.

Jack Viney hugs Max Gawn after one of his five goals in the Demons’ preliminary final win over Geelong at Perth Stadium. Picture: Michael Klein

INTERVENTION

A booth in the back of a cafe in Fitzroy St, St Kilda near the club’s then base at Junction Oval played a role in Gawn’s journey.

McConville detailed: “There was a bit of an intervention (around 2010) with a meeting with the recruiter, the coach, the football manager and his father and myself.

“It was in a little booth area out the back of a cafe in Fitzroy Street. He got a bit of a, ‘This is where we think you are at, and this is why you are at the crossroads’.

“It was definitely a moment.”

It was the time that Gawn was caught smoking when he shouldn’t have been, and the impact of his knee issues, a lack of development at the club and even his own motivation levels brought matters to a head.

Thankfully for Melbourne, and for Gawn, the penny dropped.

The rest is history.

Quinn recalled a time when Gawn, Trengove, Jack Watts and Cale Morton were sitting around having a few beers at Trengove’s place.

“Max just said: ‘I will be the best ruckman in the comp when I come back (from injury) … I know I can beat every ruckman’,” he said.

“He named two ruckmen that he thought might have been better than him at the time – one of them was Nic Naitanui.

“They threw up a few ruckmen at him, saying, ‘How would you beat so and so’. Max went on to break down their deficiencies, saying how he would negate them. He said, ‘This is how I am going to beat them’.

“This is even before he played a senior game.”

The inner drive and innate competitive spirit went into overdrive.

Max Gawn finally made the football world stop and take notice of his talent in 2016 after a number of years lost to injury and time spent in the VFL.

TURNING POINT

Gawn played 26 senior games in his first five-and-a-half seasons.

He had recovered from a second knee reconstruction, but by mid 2015 was playing as a forward in the club’s VFL alignment, while Jake Spencer was the first ruckman in the seconds’ side.

His talent was there; the opportunity wasn’t.

McConville said: “I remember having conversations with Todd Viney … they (Melbourne) weren’t doing Max a great favour at the time.

“They were keen on re-signing him. I said, ‘You aren’t going to get a signature until you give him a crack as the No.1 ruckman’.

“The following week Todd sent me a text saying, ‘You will be pleased to know Max is starting in the ruck this week’.”

Within a few weeks Gawn turned in the breakout performance of his career, dominating in the seniors against Geelong, having 19 disposals, 44 hitouts, kicking a goal and earning three Brownlow votes.

Gawn joked in the rooms that he had been “invincible”, which prompted then coach Paul Roos to write “Mr Invincible” next to the ruckman’s name on the white board that week.

He has been the club’s No.1 ruckman ever since.

Across five of the past six seasons, he has been in the All-Australian team, and he has won two best-and-fairests (2018 and 2019).

But what came next might prove his greatest legacy to a club he adores.

Max Gawn took over the captaincy from Jack Viney in 2020 and was able to help Viney get his initial shock and disappointment of losing the role.

LEADER

Jack Viney seemed the natural fit as Melbourne captain with his inspirational on-field performances – until Gawn elevated his overall leadership to a new level.

It is a credit to both players that the change of captaincy in 2020 hasn’t shaken the foundations of their relationship.

Viney was initially shattered to lose the role. But he has long since moved on, and Gawn has made sure he felt a part of the decision-making and leadership process.

Melbourne chief executive Gary Pert said the Demons had built an exceptionally strong leadership framework in recent seasons.

“One of the things people have always talked about was that Max was this young character; but what makes him such a good leader is he is now an older, more experienced character,” Pert said.

“Sometimes you have a captain of the playing group and other times you can have a captain of the club, and Max has become a captain of the whole club.

“He engages with the corporates, the members and the sponsors, and everyone just loves interacting with him.

“He knew if we were to be winning finals and playing in grand finals, he needed to evolve as a leader.

“Goody (Simon Goodwin) has allowed Max some more space to be that leader and to drive the players.

“The leaders have stood up this year. I’m not just talking about Max, I’m talking about Jack Viney, Christian Salem, Jake Lever, Steven May, Angus Brayshaw and Christian Petracca.”

Gawn has matured, but he hasn’t changed, even if his life is about to.

He and his wife Jess — who remains back in Victoria — will become parents for the first time in the weeks after the grand final.

He cannot wait.

Max Gawn leads the Demons into battle. Picture: Michael Klein

Gawn won’t just be playing his first grand final, he will be attending his first one.

He and some teammates — including Trengove — pledged years ago that they wouldn’t attend one until they got the chance to play in one.

“It’s been the hardest week of my life,” Gawn said this week on Fox Footy.

“As a skipper and as someone that’s incredibly driven as an (almost) 30-year-old guy that might not be able to get this chance again, I’m dedicating everything to be able to win this flag.

“We’ve had some good teams (over the years). The Neale Daniher era in the late ’90s and 2000s, was a really good team; the late ’80s was a really good team. Unfortunately, they didn’t get to hold the cup up.”

Gawn hasn’t forgotten those closest to him, even in the biggest week of his footy life.

He organised grand final tickets for Trengove and his fiancee with the pair to fly from Adelaide to Perth on Saturday morning.

Gawn will be a groomsman at their wedding in December.

“Max said, ‘Win, lose or draw, we’re going to have a drink afterwards’,” Trengove said.

Gawn still loves having a good time — that hasn’t changed.

But while McConville — who is still his manager and friend after all these years — says he has become “the best version of himself”, it hasn’t come at the expense of his personality.

Gawn is proud of that fact.

As he said on New Zealand radio this week: “I was injured and I was a real p---- of a kid, an 18-19-year-old who didn’t know what a professional athlete was.

“Then, somehow, 10 years later I’ve been able to get some good individual accolades and get the team into a grand final, and I’m captain.

“From what I was when I was 18, to where I am now — the best thing about it all is, I’ve been able to stay the person I wanted to be, just Max Gawn, and haven’t turned into anyone else.”