Melbourne captain Max Gawn concedes he failed to “nail” the dramatic final few moments of Sunday’s stunning loss to St Kilda that has put coach Simon Goodwin’s future in the spotlight.
But the Demons skipper was adamant Goodwin was his “favourite coach” and said the blame should lay with the players as he broke down exactly what went wrong.
It comes amid reports Melbourne is set to have a scheduled board meeting on Monday, with the club’s football department to meet with the board of directors including interim president Brad Green as pressure builds on Goodwin.
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Incoming CEO Paul Guerra has privately backed Goodwin to coach the team into the final year of his contract in 2026, however the bord meeting comes at a less than ideal time after Sunday’s disastrous fadeout loss to St Kilda.
Gawn tried to organise his troops after some centre-circle confusion when St Kilda was given a 6-6-6 free kick, with scores level and just eight seconds on the clock.
But that organisation didn’t secure an opponent for Saints star Nasiah Wanganeen-Milera, who kicked his second goal in the final minute of the game to deliver his team the greatest comeback in VFL/AFL history and a six-point win with a goal after the siren.
“I’m probably the only one on the field who knows that we got a warning in the second quarter; they tell the ruckman,” Gawn said.
“We were about to step in the circle, and I realised we had about two seconds to find a winger; there wasn’t a winger on the other side. From there, I didn’t nail it.
“In the end, it’s three seconds, so I don’t have much time, but I sent (Jack Viney) to the wing and tried to get a forward in – but it was a back that we had too many of. After that free kick happened, we didn’t nail it as well.”
Melbourne gave up a 46-point three-quarter-time lead as the Saints charged home with nine final quarter goals, including the last two to Wanganeen-Milera that has been labelled the best 60 seconds of football ever.
Gawn, who said he didn’t play “my best quarter” in the final stanza, said while it looked like the Demons “shut up shop”, it was just too hard to halt St Kilda’s momentum.
“We played pretty well for the first three quarters, but they kicked two or three early in the fourth (quarter) and it’s pretty hard to stop momentum, especially the way the Saints were playing,” he told Triple M’s Mick in the Morning.
“We started to lose the centre bounce, and then when it’s three goals to play with that comeback, it’s extremely hard to stop. Leaders, most importantly, were responsible for a bit of that. I didn’t play my best last quarter.”
The Demons tried to break down the final few minutes in the aftermath, which Gawn said had happened too many times, including against Collingwood when the captain’s kick across goals in the dying seconds resulted in a major to the Magpies.
Gawn said it seemed his team “don’t know how to win” close games.
“We spent 10 minutes in the rooms before Goody called us in. We talked among ourselves for a little bit, and the mechanism of the last play and try to find out what happened,” he said.
“There’s been five times this year where we haven’t known how to win; Giants in the first game we lost by a kick-out, Collingwood we lost by a ruckman trying to kick a torp across goal, and then last week against Carlton we stuffed up. Right now, we don’t know how to win in those close games which comes down to resilience and ruthlessness.
“We are trying our backsides off, and we all really want to win. We have to learn how to win. We will talk the talk again in training; all our talk is there and then we get to the point, and we don’t do it.”
