David King is bullish about what Melbourne can do in season 2023.
Following their drought-breaking 2021 premiership, the Demons fell away slightly last year. They finished second on the ladder but were bundled out of the finals in straight sets.
It was a dramatic campaign for the Dees who were 10-0 before the infamous spat between Steven May and Jake Melksham which somewhat derailed things.
The recent trade period was one of positivity for the Demons who recruited All-Australian ruckman Brodie Grundy from Collingwood, Western Bulldogs best and fairest Lachie Hunter and forward Josh Schache, also from the Dogs.
With that in mind, David King assessed Simon Goodwin’s side in the lead-up to 2023, forecasting that they will return as genuine contenders with Grundy alongside Max Gawn to form a scary two-pronged ruck attack.
“I love what Melbourne have done,” King said on SEN’s Dwayne’s World.
“If you’re going to be a clearance and contest based team, then you go after another ruckman to give Max some assistance.”
King suggests that the Dees might take a leaf out of 2022 premier Geelong’s books and deploy their ruckmen at opposing ends of the ground.
“I think they’ve looked at what Geelong have done with the use of (Rhys) Stanley as the ruckman then floating centre to back and freeing up a defender for intercept marking,” he added.
“I think that will be what Max Gawn does. He’ll probably do some centre bounce work and be the ruckman centre-back, and I expect Grundy to play the (Mark) Blicavs type role and be the ruckman centre-forward or a roaming, possession-gathering ruckman.
“Different to Blicavs because he can tag, but you’d think Grundy would just be the possession winner.
“I love the weaponry that Simon Goodwin is now going to have. You’re going to have Gawn or Grundy tapping the ball to (Christian) Petracca, (Clayton) Oliver, (Jack) Viney.
“They’ll be back. They had a few things go wrong last year, they weren’t at their absolute best last year despite being around the mark.
“They’ll be back in ‘23.”
The Demons kick off the 2023 season proper with a Round 1 clash against the Bulldogs at the MCG on March 18.