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Fresh start: Gawn "extremely excited" by new-look Dees
SEN • November 4th, 2025 5:39 pm
Melbourne captain Max Gawn is extremely excited about the fresh start the Demons are looking at ahead of 2026.
Four years on from their 2021 premiership victory, the Dees moved on some key figures from that side this off-season, with coach Simon Goodwin departing alongside club greats Christian Petracca and Clayton Oliver.
While some expect the Dees, who finished 14th in 2025, to be initially worse off without two of their all-time on-field stars in Oliver and Petracca, Gawn doesn't see things that way ahead of Steven King's first season in charge of the club.
"I'm extremely excited," Gawn told SEN Afternoons.
"I understand what it looks like from externally. We've lost two of our best players, and we have.
"But I feel like what we're creating, and now with the help of a new coach, a new CEO, and a soon-to-be new president, is really exciting.
"To get a fresh start and to be able to make a first impression 17 years into my career is something that I'm really excited by, and I know the majority of the group is.
"I know we've lost two of our icons of Melbourne Football Club, Clayton's a four-time best and fairest, and Petracca won two. There's All-Australians galore between them, a Norm Smith for 'Trac', and they're Grand Final heroes, both of them.
"But I think it's time to change."
Having contended for two seasons post the premiership victory, finishing top four in both 2022 and 2023 before exiting finals in straight sets, things dropped off in both 2024 and 2025 for the Dees as they slid down the ladder.
While the core of that premiership list was still together last season, Gawn agreed that it was time for some significant change as things looked to be going only one way with that group.
He compared Melbourne's lack of change from 2021 to 2025 to Geelong's overhaul from 2022 to 2025, which saw them return to the Grand Final three years after winning the flag.
"When it was all happening, the Grand Final was on at the same time, and if Geelong had beaten Brisbane, they would have bred 11 new premiership players," Gawn said.
"But let's say we were in the 2025 Grand Final, I reckon we would have had only five or so new premiership players.
"So our list just hasn't turned over (since 2021). Geelong won in 2022, and we were 2021, and they had already turned over half of their team.
"We stuck so strong after 2021, and to be fair, in the following two years, we did finish top four in both of those years, so we had a good crack at it.
"But it's time to move on. We've finished 14th two years in a row, so it's time to change some things."
Gawn will hope to skipper the Dees for a seventh-straight season in 2026.
