MELBOURNE'S Max Gawn aspires to join the upper echelon of AFL ruckmen, but says he needs to fine-tune his game if he is to join players such as Todd Goldstein at the top of that category.

Subbing in for Jack Watts, who was originally nominated to speak to the media only to call in sick due to a migraine, Gawn said he had not reached Goldstein's level yet.

"There's probably a group of five or six elite AFL ruckman and I want to have my name in that [group]," Gawn said on Monday.

"So if I keep going the way I'm going – obviously I need to get ruckman to stop kicking five goals on me – hopefully I can run out games and get some consistency going."

Gawn played a vital role in the Demons' 35-point win over Collingwood on Sunday, racking up 35 hit-outs, 15 disposals and five tackles, and kicking a goal late in the final term to carry his side over the magical 100-point barrier.

That followed an intriguing battle with Goldstein the previous week in which the North ruckman booted five goals and had 38 hit-outs as Gawn amassed 63 hit-outs, including 25 to advantage.