SuperCoach: The insider stats that show if Max Gawn was impacted by Braydon Preuss

Max Gawn owners’ hearts dropped when they saw ‘IN: Braydon Preuss’ on Wednesday night. But did his inclusion impact the bearded giant’s SuperCoach influence? SEE THE STATS

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA — MARCH 27: Max Gawn of the Demons gestures during a Melbourne Demons AFL training session at Gosch's Paddock on March 27, 2019 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Michael Dodge/Getty Images)

When teams for the Sydney and Melbourne clash dropped on Wednesday night, SuperCoaches’ hearts dropped as they glanced at three ominous words.

IN: Braydon Preuss.

There was fair warning from Simon Goodwin and even Max Gawn himself over the pre-season that Melbourne could play two full-time ruckmen in the same side.

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SuperCoaches were pulling their hair out at the prospect of Gawn sharing the duties with Preuss — the same fate that brought about Todd Goldstein’s SuperCoach demise in 2017.

But after Preuss struggled in the JLT Community Series, we figured it was unlikely the former Roo would feature in the real stuff.

Sure enough he has, and it only took four rounds for him to crack into the Melbourne best-22.

Braydon Preuss played his first game for the Demons on Thursday night. Picture. Getty Images

How did Max Gawn fare with another recognised ruckman in the line-up? In short, not a lot changed for the bearded giant.

According to Champion Data, the 208cm-Demon spent 99 per cent of time playing as a ruckman across the first three rounds. On Thursday night, Gawn still played exclusively in his primary role, with 95 per cent of his time-on-ground being as a ruckman.

It is a very small sample size, but 94,144 SuperCoaches can breathe a sigh of relief that Preuss will not steal Gawn’s points unless things change dramatically. Gawn attended 25 centre-bounces in the match, while Preuss was in just three.

Max Gawn was largely unaffected by Preuss’ inclusion in the side. Picture. Getty Images

MAX GAWN STATS R 1-3 v R4

Hit-outs 39 — 55

Hit-outs-to-advantage 12.7 — 18

Hit-outs-to-advantage win per cent 16.4% — 26.9%

Time in ruck 99% — 95%

Time in forward 1% — 5%

SuperCoach points 109.7 — 113

In his first game for the Demons, Preuss played predominantly as a tall forward with short stints in the ruck. Preuss played as a forward for 87 per cent of the game and just 13 per cent as the Dees’ designated ruckman.

The 23-year-old appears likely to remain in the Demons side after an imposing showing, finishing with 11 disposals, 13 hit-outs, two majors and 76 SuperCoach points. He proved to be Melbourne’s barometer early in the piece with two eye-catching first quarter goals.

Gawn and Preuss are likely to continue playing together. Picture. Getty

Tall forwards Tom McDonald (five hit-outs) and Sam Weideman (0) also spent brief periods in the ruck to give the pair a chop out.

From a ruck perspective, Gawn absolutely smashed Callum Sinclair amassing 55-hitouts to Sinclair’s nine to go with his 19 disposals and 113 SuperCoach points.

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Hit-outs 13

Time in Ruck 13%

Time in Forward 87%

SuperCoach points 76

He was also stationed behind the ball at times throughout the match — particularly in the final quarter — clunking three intercept marks.

However, his score didn’t reflect his dominance despite notching a mammoth 18 hit-outs-to-advantage — over five more than his average across the first three rounds.

This was due to the amount of hit-outs that fell straight into the lap of Swans on-ballers. Gawn’s score was hindered by his 17 sharked hit-outs. Each of these hit-outs took a solitary point off his score.

Max Gawn dominated Callum Sinclair on Thursday night. Picture. Getty

Without these sharked hit-outs, Gawn gets to 130 points. It is unrealistic to expect Gawn to not get sharked at all throughout a match, but his total on Thursday night was well above his average of 6.7 sharked hit-outs in the previous three games.

Likewise, Gawn isn’t going to come up against a ruck opponent like Callum Sinclair every week. But as we have seen over the past four seasons, Max Gawn is the No. 1 hitout ruckman in the league and we won’t be seeing him slide anytime soon.

SuperCoaches don’t fret — Gawn as a SuperCoach powerhouse is here to stay.