MAX Gawn says he’s still bullish on how Melbourne can fare this year, despite the red and blue dropping its past three years.
Gawn said he wasn’t thinking “here we go again” in regards to Melbourne’s season being derailed – referencing last year, when the team finished ninth and missed the eight, when it was on track for the finals. 0
“We took a step back, so we’ve got to get back on the winners’ circle, but we’ve got Fremantle this week and it’s a pretty exciting game for us to go up to Darwin and then we’ve got the Doggies from there,” he said.
“Then we’ve got some really big games, so it’s a pretty exciting couple of weeks for us.
“We’re eight [wins] and six [losses] and we’re slightly in the eight and it’s still a pretty good position to be in.”
Speaking on Monday, the day after Melbourne’s two-point loss to St Kilda at the MCG, Gawn said the mood wasn’t great after the defeat.
“We definitely weren’t happy with the way we played, [particularly] off the back of two losses as well – you’d think we’d try and respond and get a win,” he said.
“But three losses on the trot now is not a great feeling to be honest, but it’s a six-day turnaround and the best thing about footy is that there is a game coming up and it’s up in Darwin, which is a place where we like going to.
“It’s probably good to get away from Melbourne as well, so we get up there on Thursday and we’ve got the Dockers.”
Gawn stressed that the league was incredibly even and anyone could win on any given day.
“It’s probably the most even competition is around round 14 to 18, when you see teams like the Doggies, Crows and Brisbane [win] … after coming back from the bye and start to play some good footy,” he said.
“We knew the Saints was going to be a tough game and we’ve got a pretty poor [recent history] against the Saints [losing 14 in a row from 2007-16].
“We knew that Jack Steven, Seb Ross, David Armitage and Jade Gresham … some really talented players – we had to get hold of them and we didn’t. So, unfortunately we didn’t play the way we wanted to.”
