MAX GAWN is as frustrated as anyone with Melbourne’s premature end to the 2022 season.
The skipper, who held the premiership cup aloft in Perth last year, was hoping to do the same thing at the MCG in front of the Demons’ faithful this September, but it wasn’t to be.
“I’m not ashamed of using that line of 'we wanted to win it for our fans',” Gawn told Melbourne Media.
“All of a sudden we don’t win it, so does that mean we didn’t want to win it for our fans? No.
“I’m not ashamed of using that line.
“I think that was clearly some of our motivation, we just ran into a really, really hot team first week of the finals, and … we weren’t necessarily playing our best football.”
The Dees finished the home and away season with a 16-6 record to their name, qualifying second on the ladder to earn a home final.
But consecutive losses to Sydney and Brisbane have sent them into the off-season with plenty of work to do.
“We gave ourselves a really good chance to play some good finals footy,” Gawn said.
“Second on the ladder in a tough season, in a very competitive season, off the back of one of our biggest campaigns ever that didn’t really stop to be honest.
“To be able to come out second, it’s a tremendous effort.
“We were set up really well to be able to perform on the weekend and some habits that we learnt during the second half of the year came out in both finals.
“It was the same old Melbourne story with some of those stats – winning the contested ball, winning the forward half game but losing games of footy.
With three games remaining in the 2022 campaign, Gawn will have to watch from afar as either Geelong, Brisbane, Sydney or Collingwood steal his side’s throne.
And that’s a scenario he won’t enjoy.
“Right now, it’s extreme jealousy,” he said.
“It’s a feeling that you know you’ve had, you feel like you probably should be there, but really you weren’t because you got found out with habits that were in your game for the last maybe eight/nine weeks of the season.
“I’m a competitive [person].
“I’ll run the house down in the off-season, I’ll be training the house down, I’ll try and bring as many guys with me to do the same thing.
Last Friday’s Semi-Final saw Melbourne open up a 26-point lead in the second term, only to be ran down by the Lions after half-time.
That momentum swing was a trend that hurt the Demons in the back-half of the season, teaching them a valuable lesson ahead of 2023.
“Really we got found out for some of the form we were showing in the last 10 weeks,” Gawn said.
“So, was it a missed opportunity or did we just get highlighted with how bad some of our form was trending? Apart from obvious games like Fremantle and Brisbane last game of the year.
“A lot of the other games there was stuff to work on and a lot of it is our forward half connection.”
And while right now it’s hard for anyone who bleeds red and blue to not be upset with the result, Gawn knows he can’t stay flat for too long.
“Footy’s an amazing sport – only one [team] is seen as a success,” Gawn said.
“Only the premier is going to be seen as really a successful year and all the other 17 teams have to go away and work on something, and they’re all great teams.
“It’s a crazy competition – that’s why we love it, that’s why we come back and want to play it.”
