COACH Mark Neeld says ruckman Max Gawn is right in the mix to play his first AFL match since round 2011, after shining for Casey in the VFL.
Gawn, who has played four matches for the Demons (from rounds 11 to 13, and in round 20, 2011), has hit back strongly since returning from a serious knee injury, which sidelined him last year, and a hamstring problem more recently that interrupted his pre-season.
Speaking on the Coach’s Office, Neeld said Gawn was doing everything right to earn a recall sooner rather than later.
“He’s in good form and we have to make sure we’re doing the right thing by Max,” he said.
“He’s coming back from a significant injury, but he’s been in full training now for eight weeks and has played four games, so he’ll come under heavy consideration for this weekend’s game against GWS. We’ll make the final call on that later in the week.
“He’s a big presence around the footy club and he’s got a great personality. He’s quite a competitive young fella and he’ll go close to senior selection this week, I would think.”
Reflecting on the 94 point loss to the Eagles, Neeld said he was “really pleased” with the first half, adding that it was the type of football he wanted his side to play, before conceding that the third quarter was unacceptable.
“We certainly saw enough in that first half to encourage us enough to say ‘this young group, as we keep moving forward, there is enough to work with’.”
“Sometimes it’s really difficult to hear the outside think that in the period of 12 months, it should’ve all been turned around. But the reality against West Coast was that our team had [an average of] 59 games experience versus 105 and we wanted to compete longer than a half, but we certainly managed to take it up to them. And they’re the things that we’re looking at.
“We’re clearly in a developmental phase - these things take time and we’re in the beginning of the second year into it. The Eagles had their most experienced side in for five or six seasons and, in that third quarter, it showed.”
Neeld acknowledged that the third quarters had been a problem, and he pointed to a few reasons why this had occurred.
“The last couple of weeks, we’ve come up against two really experienced sides - they’ve got a run on and we’ve been unable to halt that momentum,” he said.
“That seems to be a League problem at the moment and there are discrepancies, as always, with experienced and inexperienced sides. There are a number of things that we tried tactically that necessarily didn’t work, but we’ll be better placed to handle that again.
“We couldn’t get our hands on the football and we were unable to defend their speed of ball movement, and that’s where that stood for that quarter.”
Looking ahead to Sunday’s clash against Greater Western Sydney at the MCG, Neeld said it was a genuine test for his side.
“We know that we’re competing with other franchise clubs like Gold Coast and a couple of others in a similar boat, so it’s a really good opportunity for both clubs to see how we can take it to each other for as long as we possibly can.
“It’s always important when you’re trying to rebuild and start from scratch, which is clearly what we’ve done with the new recruits, so it’s a really good opportunity.”
