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Sport Nation
Healy: How Melbourne can avoid the demise of a key Demon
Gerard Healy • August 20th, 2025 12:41 pm
For a couple of years now, I thought that Jacob Van Rooyen would end up as a full-back for Melbourne.
And after the weekend's game, I'm even more convinced that there's a spot there.
That Steven May's time as a key defender has just about come to a close, unless something changes dramatically over summer. Dramatically.
He looks disinterested and maybe after a couple of tough years one of the great full-backs of the modern era has checked out for the year.
It's not lost on opposition who all love to isolate him as Hawthorn did last week.
His demise was highlighted on The Agenda setters by Kane Cornes and co., pointing out just how much he has waned this year.
His numbers for one on ones lost has risen from 13 per cent in the early part of the year, to now roughly 1 in 3 or about 32 per cent.
That's evidence enough of the decline of one of the great backs of recent times.
Is it over? That's hard to know.
But a positional move might just spark him again. A run at full-forward would be a return to where it all started on the Gold Coast.
Last year, I mentioned a number of times that I thought the Swans should do the same with Logan McDonald, pushing him to the key back position to fill a Sydney hole and get the best out of him as a high draft pick.
The Swans agreed, but after seeing him play there a couple of times in 2024, I wasn't as convinced as I thought I would be.
But it's still a possible experiment for Dean Cox again next year.
There's never a guarantee.
The same could be done with Van Rooyen or Harrison Petty this week.
Move Van Rooyen or Petty to full-back and give May another opportunity at full-forward to give the new coach a heads up on what it could look like as he considers 2026.
It would also give May something to consider over summer, for no doubt his effort or lack thereof last week would have been pointed out by Troy Chaplin.
Do they give him another go to finish on a high, or do they perhaps just use this opportunity to experiment?
Only a massive pre-season can hold back Father Time for May, who would no doubt reward him with another year or two if he made the sacrifice.
But a view from the goal square as a forward might just sharpen up his view of the football world as he looks his mortality as a player squarely in the eye.
