Melbourne coach plays down possible toe issue for captain Max Gawn

Melbourne captain Max Gawn won’t miss Friday’s must-win final against Carlton amid reports he’s playing with an injury.

A rumoured injury won’t stop Max Gawn from playing. Picture: Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images

Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin has bristled at questioning over Max Gawn’s fitness, insisting the Demons captain will train fully and be ready to play in Friday’s semi-final showdown with Carlton.

Goodwin refused to confirm Gawn had a broken toe and said Clayton Oliver (knee soreness) would also be fine to take on the Blues.

The premiership coach would only say he expected Gawn and Oliver to train fully on Tuesday after both sat out an earlier session following the qualifying final loss to Collingwood.

“I’m not going to give out our medical report,” he said when asked about Gawn’s toe.

“I can confirm he’s going to train fully today. Both he and Clayton will train fully today and be available.

“I think every player is carrying certain things at certain times of the year, but it’s not going to slow either of these two down … they’ll train fully (on Tuesday) in preparation for the game.”

Max Gawn is rumoured to have a broken toe. Picture: Darrian Traynor / Getty Images

Goodwin was coy on the selection options at his disposal to replace suspended forward Jacob van Rooyen, which comes after a severe relapse of the Demons’ scoring issues from earlier this season and the loss of in-form target Jake Melksham to an ACL injury the week before.

He would not be drawn on whether out-of-favour ruckman Brodie Grundy would earn a recall.

“Nothing is off the table, it’s still very early in the week. I’m not going to go into the depths of what the team will look like from a selection perspective, but what we have done throughout the whole year is have to find a way to score,” Goodwin said.

“We’ve had some real interruptions at the forward end of the ground, and that’s no different currently.

“We’re not sitting here thinking, ‘woe is me’, we’re thinking what are the opportunities and how can we generate the result we are looking for.”

First-year Demons Brodie Grundy and Josh Schache are both in the frame for a recall with Jacob van Rooyen suspended for the semi-final. Picture: Julian Smith / AAP

Goodwin said Ben Brown would train fully on Tuesday after being restricted by a knee problem for the last fortnight, while Josh Schache was also available.

He said there was some frustration over the Demons’ inability to kick a winning score after a huge inside 50 advantage against the Magpies, but he considered the qualifying final an outlier along with the round 16 loss to GWS in Alice Springs.

“It was poor on the weekend, we weren’t happy with how we moved the ball, we weren’t happy with how we executed the ball inside 50,” he said.

“Certainly our ability to use the ball inside 50 wasn’t to the level that it had been in the previous six or eight weeks, so we’re not sitting here denying it.

“It’s just a game of footy that we didn’t get right … throughout the year we’ve had games where we’ve executed incredibly well.”