Can Melbourne’s one-of-a-kind Max Gawn finally break the Brownlow mould for ruckmen?
THERE is nothing conventional about Melbourne’s one-of-a-kind ruckman Max Gawn, but he will have to do something special to break the modern trend of big men being invisible in Brownlow Medal voting.
Melbourne
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THERE is nothing conventional about Melbourne’s one-of-a-kind big man Max Gawn, but he will have to do something special if he is to break the modern mould of ruckmen being almost invisible when it comes to the Brownlow Medal.
Gawn has been the Brownlow buzz word in recent weeks off the back of his career-best form as he has firmed into $5 second favourite behind Hawthorn’s possession machine Tom Mitchell ($2.75).
But while Leigh Matthews, Luke Darcy and Jonathan Brown believe Gawn’s form has been among the best from a ruckman for many seasons, there are others including a respected former umpire who say that while ruckmen may win games, they just don’t win Brownlows.
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Even Champion Data’s Brownlow Medal predictor has Gawn sitting on 12 votes - with only one best afield - from 17 rounds.
That leaves him seven votes behind projected leaders Mitchell and West Coast’s Andrew Gaff. Surprisingly, it also has him trailing the past two winners Dustin Martin (17 votes) and Patrick Dangerfield (15 votes), who have had solid years rather than spectacular ones.
Derek Humphery-Smith, who umpired 83 games from 1996 to 2003, doubts Gawn can win, saying the ground-level perceptions of umpires mean ruckmen are often overlooked.
While conceding that Gawn’s distinctive look - the beard, the height and the shaved hair - help him stand out from the crowd, it likely won’t see his name scrawled often enough on the umpires’ voting slips to win Australian football’s most prestigous award.
“I just think it is less obvious to umpires the influence he (Gawn) is having on a game,” Humphery-Smith said.
“Even when a beautiful piece of tapwork goes to an onballer on the move, the bloke who you remember is the bloke who sprints out of the pack.
“So if it is (Aaron) Sandilands to (Nat) Fyfe, you tend to remember Fyfe’s effort going away from the contest more than you do the Sandilands tap.
“That’s just purely an observational thing. It’s just human behaviour.”
Humphery-Smith said umpires take great pride in their voting responsibilities, but conceded players carrying the ball - and those willing to take a bounce - are often noticed more.
“He’s a distinctively looking footballer ... there are not many blokes on this earth who look like Max Gawn,” he said.
“So he won’t be confused with someone else from Melbourne who has had a lot of the footy, but I can’t see him winning the Brownlow.”
Gawn leads the Herald Sun’s Player of the Year award on 20 votes, one ahead of Mitchell and Fyfe.
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Surprisingly, he isn’t rated a strong Brownlow Medal chance by the Champion Data predictor, and neither is Collingwood’s Brodie Grundy, despite their huge influence in 2018.
Champion Data rated Gawn best afield in one of his 16 matches this season - the Round 6 game against Essendon - while they have him polling votes in nine games overall.
During the 1970s and ‘80s ruckmen had a strong Brownlow record, with six winners coming from 10 seasons from 1975 to 1984 but it has been mostly a drought since, with the award often tagged as “a midfielder’s medal”.
Adam Goodes is acknowledged as the last ruckman to win a Brownlow Medal in 2003, although he was an undersized 191cm player who also spent time in other positions during his dominant season.
The last of the traditional ruckmen to win the Brownlow was Scott Wynd in 1992, who won it a year after Jim Stynes (whose No.11 Gawn wears today).
The last time a ruckman polled 20 votes was Aaron Sandilands eight years ago, when he was 10 off the winner Chris Judd. Gawn’s 2018 stats are superior to Sandilands’ 2010 return.
Gawn’s best voting performance was when he polled 16 votes in 2016, 19 adrift of the winner in Dangerfield.
Darcy, who started an overwhelming Brownlow favourite in 2002, but finished nine votes behind Simon Black, is hopeful that Gawn can buck the trend.
“I’ll be barracking for the big fellow,” Darcy said. “I think he can win it.”
“I am loving seeing Grundy and Max Gawn and those sort of ruckmen get 20 and sometimes 30 possessions and applying their ruck craft. You really do get a bonus player in the midfield.
“What I love about Max’s game right now is he is going forward and taking big marks, and going back and taking great defensive marks when his team needs it.
“He’s the most likeable person you would ever meet. He’s worked so hard to get himself as fit as he is. He’s come a long way from smoking ‘darts’ on the way to training.”
Matthews - often considered the greatest player to have never won a Brownlow - says Gawn’s 2018 form has been outstanding.
“If you are talking about all-round ruck work, hit-outs and big strong marking around the ground, I am trying to think of the last ruckman who had that sort of ability ... gee, you have to go back a long way for that,” Matthew said on 3AW.
Still, Matthews only rated Gawn fourth best for the Demons against the Bulldogs last week, behind Angus Brayshaw, Jesse Hogan and Clayton Oliver.
Brown believes this year will provide “a real test of the Brownlow system” with Gawn’s dominance in tapwork and his improvement around the ground demanding attention.
Darcy said a breakthrough Gawn Brownlow win would be one of the brotherhood of ruckmen past and present, but unforgettable in his post-medal musings: “It wouldn’t be boring (the speech) ... he gives a bit, we need more blokes like that in footy.”
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