RUCKMAN Max Gawn says 15 minutes of football cost his side any chance of defeating against GWS Giants at UNSW Canberra Oval on Saturday.  

The Demons lost by 35 points, but after opening the game with three goals and leading by 16 points, Melbourne was halted by GWS, which replied with eight in a row.

It resulted in a 36-point lead at quarter-time, which was effectively the final margin. It was a dominant period by the Giants and from that point Melbourne was never in the hunt.  

Gawn said GWS’ momentum was hard to stop and it wasn’t until quarter-time that the Melbourne coaches addressed the issues with the players.

“It was disappointing. We did gee ourselves up for this game. We [entered this match] with four big games to go and this was one of them,” he told Melbourne TV.

“We actually started off not too bad, but the next 15 minutes of that first quarter, we stopped going to the footy, which is where you win the ball. They had five or six numbers to our two or three, and it’s a numbers game footy sometimes.

“They kicked eight [in a row] in the first quarter and they won by six goals, which was the margin in the end. That’s what cost us – that 15 minutes and we were probably all right from then, with little lapses here and there. Now we’ve got to focus on the next three weeks.”

Gawn, who finished with 53 hit outs, 19 disposals and a goal, said he was really getting back to some belief back in his game, after being sidelined with a hamstring injury for 10 weeks earlier in the season. He said it was important to have a strong hit-out against Giant ruckman Shane Mumford.

“It was a bad injury that I had and I’m finally starting to get a bit of confidence now,” he said.

“The last three weeks I’ve felt pretty good.

“He’s a quality ruckman, Shane. I’ve only played him once or twice before, so we actually haven’t had too many battles, so it was a good little battle.

Gawn said he “definitely didn’t see” Mumford collect him high.

“I wasn’t too bad. I feel down at the start. My eye was a bit blurry … I think he got me in the eye, which was lucky because I don’t like going off the ground.

“I had to go off the ground to get the eye checked, but I was allowed back on.”

With three weeks to go before a potential finals series, Gawn said it was simply a matter of only focusing on next round against St Kilda at the MCG.

“I don’t run with clichés too often, but we’ve got to take this one week at a time. We can’t get ahead of anything, because every opposition brings its own threat and no more than St Kilda,” he said.

“It’s an exciting battle this week – we’re back at the ‘G and hopefully we can get the chocolates.”