Steven May returned to the AFL in Round 15, finishing with 599 metres gained and 22 disposals as Melbourne cruised to a comfortable 64-point win over Brisbane.
He also kept Joe Daniher to just one goal in the contest.
It was May’s first game back since facing a club suspension for the infamous fight with teammate Jake Melksham.
Plenty of commentary followed in the aftermath of the incident, which many suggesting teammates would never be able to fully get over May’s sledges and actions towards his teammates that night.
May’s line coach, Melbourne assistant Troy Chaplain, admitted to SEN SA Breakfast that May’s competitiveness can be his undoing.
“Mayesy (May) is a very good person, very family-orientated person and very caring and very loving,” Chaplin said.
“The thing that is probably his greatest strength can be his greatest weakness, and that’s that he’s very competitive.
“He loves winning and he loves competing, and probably over the course of my time with him as well, he’s developed and learnt how to have conversations with players around him.”
Chaplain also provided a stark admission into May’s character when he first arrived at the club.
The 30-year-old joined Melbourne at the end of 2018 alongside Kade Kolodjashnij, in exchange for Pick 6 after co-captaining the Suns to consecutive bottom four finishes.
“When he first got to the club he was very, very hard on guys,” Chaplain added.
“What he’s learnt is not everyone responds to that type of feedback, so he’s had to develop himself as a person and that’s what we’ve seen him do, we’ve seen him grow as an individual both on the field and off the field.
“This has been a bit of a hiccup, it’s been a pretty big hiccup for him, but it’s just about building trust back between the playing group.
“The weekend was a good start to that, but he knows he's got a lot of work to do and we’ll support him with that.”
Chaplain added that May and Melksham were “very mature” with how they addressed they incident with the playing group and that both were now “fine” with each other.
Melksham also returned in the VFL over the weekend, gathering 18 disposals and two goals.