Melbourne ruckman Max Gawn has broken down a pivotal moment in the fourth quarter of last night’s Semi Final win over Hawthorn.
The Hawks had kicked three goals in a row to start the term, bringing the margin back to 12 points and had all of the momentum.
At the very next centre bounce, Ben McEvoy came to the bench and Gawn had the ruck mismatch against Jarryd Roughead.
He won the hit-out, Angus Brayshaw won the clearance and Jake Melksham kicked an incredible goal from 50 metres out on his left foot.
Jake Melksham unloads a bomb!#AFLFinals pic.twitter.com/QfXpIiUOf2
— AFL (@AFL) September 14, 2018
Gawn revealed he was actually supposed to come off the ground with McEvoy, but waved the runner off.
“McEvoy was pretty consistent in coming off at the eight or nine minute mark to start off with so I was presuming he was going to do the same thing in that quarter,” Gawn told SEN’s Crunch Time.
“Crossy (Daniel Cross) our runner actually told me to come off at the same time and I told him just a little bit of game state and I’ve got a chance against Roughead at the centre bounce, they’ve kicked three in a row and I’d like to win this clearance before I come off and that’s what happened.
“It doesn’t always work like that, sometimes Simon Goodwin can ask me why the hell did I stay on, but I was able to get my hand on it, we won the clearance and got a goal and then I came off for my rest.
“So little things like that, it was only 25 seconds I stayed on the ground longer, but it managed to be one more play.
“Me and Crossy have a very love-hate relationship. The last two times he’s tried to get me off in the last two minutes of the game and I do a very, very slow walk over to the bench and Crossy cops it from Goodwin.”
Host of SEN’s Crunch Time Gerard Whateley believes that decision could’ve been the difference in the result.
“That was the game, that clearance,” Whateley said.
Melksham’s goal gave the Dees an 18-point lead, with Tom McDonald and Melksham’s second putting the game beyond doubt after that.