David King has highlighted some numbers that suggest Melbourne captain Max Gawn is currently below his best.
The six-time All-Australian ruckman has not been quite as effective individually in 2023 as he shares duties with Brodie Grundy while also having nursed a knee injury earlier in the campaign.
Gawn is averaging 14 disposals this year - his lowest average since 2017 - while averaging 17.9 hit-outs - his lowest return since 2014.
King ran some numbers on Gawn and how he and his fellow Demons stars, without the injured Clayton Oliver, need to take control even though they’ve lost just once in their past five.
However, King does feel the Dees are not quite as sharp or powerful as they were this time last year, coinciding with Gawn’s downturn.
“What they’ve done is they’ve standardised and normalised 100 minutes in the ruck role,” King said on SEN’s The Picks.
“In 2018, Max was 4.4 ratings points above the AFL average, All-Australian level.
“In 2019, +5.3 above the AFL average of a ruckman.
“In 2021, +1.2, and in 2022, +1.7.
“This year, Max Gawn as a ruckman is -1.2. So he’s sub AFL average as a ruckman in our competition right now.
“He’s taken two contested intercept marks for the year. Last year he took 19 and the year before that he took 28.
“I think the challenge for Melbourne this year is to correct their game through their stars. Oliver is clearly not going to be there, time for the big boys to say, ‘righto, let’s take control’, of a program that’s going ok but it’s nowhere near what it was 18 months ago.”
Earlier in the week, King was critical of the way the Demons failed to react when their skipper Gawn was seemingly targeted by Port Adelaide last Friday night.
Gawn was constantly clattered into by Power players throughout the game, but the Dees did get some free kicks which according to coach Simon Goodwin was a win.
But King wants to see a bit more reaction from Gawn’s teammates, especially if Fremantle attempt the same tactics this weekend
“I watched that first half back on side vision, the wide scope camera, and Max got bumped into 14 times,” he added.
“This sounds ridiculous doing it, but I just wanted to see it for myself. Did it have a big impact on the game? Was it outside the rules? And why were they doing it?
“They were clearly doing it to delay Max some time to get to that next contest and it just wore him down.
“Now this is going to happen again. I would be staggered if we saw the same response as we saw last week.
“But that’s for Simon, not for me. He might see they got a win out of it. In his presser he said they got three free kicks and a 50 (metre penalty). He might say that’s our victory. There’s merit in that too.
“But I think when your biggest player and your captain, your torchbearer, is getting bumped around and targeted - I think the others need to come to the rescue.
“I think giving away a free kick in a home and away game sends a message. If I were Max I’d say I am going to wear one. I’m going to make sure it’s not going to cost us a goal, it’s going to be in our forward half, if someone does it to me I’m throwing them to the ground and saying enough’s enough.
“I think you’ve got to do something, but I understand Simon’s look at it as well.”
Gawn and the Dees will look to bounce back from last weekend’s four-point loss to Port when they host the in-form Dockers at the MCG from 2:10pm AEST this Saturday.