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MCL Injury to Max Gawn

Colm
Colm
in Melbourne Demons

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I noticed doctor Laura sat next to him all night and was talking a lot. I think she was in counseling mode. Trying to support him best she could. 

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    Assume we won’t know anything until lunch time. Going to be a long morning

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      On 24/03/2023 at 14:08, Bring-Back-Powell said:

    Yeah agreed. I Kind of got the impression he knew something.

    I’m afraid you might be right and I oh so hope that I am wrong with my thinking.

    If it is the worst case scenario I hope Max draws on the fighting spirit of Jim Stynes, does his time recuperating and comes back bigger and stronger than ever next year.

    Opportunity for Schache to step up alongside Grundy?

    As I said earlier…… I hope I am so wrong about Max 

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    Given his height and age, if it's a medical we're probably looking at 8-12 weeks. If an ACL we all know how long.

    Either way, we're going to have to figure out how to play without him for a while, so let's talk about that. Do they pull the trigger on Schache? I thought Tom's ruckwork was very poor and directly cost us quite a few goals. 

    Brodie will get better but he's a different player to Max and is not going to give us the contested marking presence we need. Not sure Schache takes a strong contested mark either. 

    Max is irreplaceable but we will need to do something. Is KFW too raw? He seems further progressed than Verrall. 

    I think Schache will come in for Gawn and they'll try to persist with Tom up forward until he either finds form or JVR kicks him out. 

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      On 24/03/2023 at 21:34, Wodjathefirst said:

    I’m afraid you might be right and I oh so hope that I am wrong with my thinking.

    If it is the worst case scenario I hope Max draws on the fighting spirit of Jim Stynes, does his time recuperating and comes back bigger and stronger than ever next year.

    Opportunity for Schache to step up alongside Grundy?

    As I said earlier…… I hope I am so wrong about Max 

    Grateful the list  build is in the hands of people like Taylor and Lamb in these occasions, recognising our achilles heel (one of them) in ruck stocks.  Now with Schache we can at least have a form of solution.

    Heartfelt thoughts to Max at this time .  A wonderful leader.

     

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    I think we had all better get used to the idea of Goody holding up the Premiership Cup with Jack Viney this year.

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    Hopefully not an ACL but either way he's out for a while.

    Huge loss to the team but we have a handy replacement in Grundy. Thought he worked his way into the game well last night.

    We just got to suck this up and get on with it. We're still a very good team and can overcome this. 

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      On 24/03/2023 at 21:49, BDA said:

    Hopefully not an ACL but either way he's out for a while.

    Huge loss to the team but we have a handy replacement in Grundy. Thought he worked his way into the game well last night.

    We just got to suck this up and get on with it. We're still a very good team and can overcome this. 

    My concern with losing Max isn’t around the ruck itself. Our midfield will adjust to playing under Grundy who is no slouch, just like they adjusted to play with Jackson. 

    Gawn is so vital to our down the ground structure and takes contested marks. We have nobody who can replicate that and it does absolutely stuff up an entire pre- season of planning around two key ruckmen with Gawn playing deep forward.

    It isn’t something you can just fine tune in a week of training. We don’t have anyone who can replace Gawn’s work around the ground, and Grundy having missed a year of footy is just not going to be able to shoulder his enormous work rate either. 
     

    We need to very very quickly make some structural changes if we want to keep our flag chances going. It also doesn’t help that TMac seems to be cooked. 

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    Agree doesn’t look good but we can’t toss the whole year in….I can think of 3 clubs off the top of my head who won flags when they lost a vital player for the year with an ACL (Port 2004, Bulldogs 2016, Tigers 2019)

     

    Let’s hope for the best though

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      On 24/03/2023 at 21:56, Jaded No More said:

    My concern with losing Max isn’t around the ruck itself. Our midfield will adjust to playing under Grundy who is no slouch, just like they adjusted to play with Jackson. 

    Gawn is so vital to our down the ground structure and takes contested marks. We have nobody who can replicate that and it does absolutely stuff up an entire pre- season of planning around two key ruckmen with Gawn playing deep forward.

    It isn’t something you can just fine tune in a week of training. We don’t have anyone who can replace Gawn’s work around the ground, and Grundy having missed a year of footy is just not going to be able to shoulder his enormous work rate either. 
     

    We need to very very quickly make some structural changes if we want to keep our flag chances going. It also doesn’t help that TMac seems to be cooked. 

    I don't disagree with any of that Jaded. And TMac is a big worry for sure.

    But injuries to key players happen all the time. It's a big inditement of the brains trust if plan B's are not in place for these eventualities. 

    If the worst comes to the worst I believe we have the cattle to secure top 4. Other players need to step up leadership wise and the brains trust need to figure it out structurally. Its what they are paid to do.

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      On 24/03/2023 at 21:56, sisso said:

    Agree doesn’t look good but we can’t toss the whole year in….I can think of 3 clubs off the top of my head who won flags when they lost a vital player for the year with an ACL (Port 2004, Bulldogs 2016, Tigers 2019)

     

    Let’s hope for the best though

    Great call...

    Primus, murphy and rance?

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      On 24/03/2023 at 21:56, Jaded No More said:

    My concern with losing Max isn’t around the ruck itself. Our midfield will adjust to playing under Grundy who is no slouch, just like they adjusted to play with Jackson. 

    Gawn is so vital to our down the ground structure and takes contested marks. We have nobody who can replicate that and it does absolutely stuff up an entire pre- season of planning around two key ruckmen with Gawn playing deep forward.

    It isn’t something you can just fine tune in a week of training. We don’t have anyone who can replace Gawn’s work around the ground, and Grundy having missed a year of footy is just not going to be able to shoulder his enormous work rate either. 
     

    We need to very very quickly make some structural changes if we want to keep our flag chances going. It also doesn’t help that TMac seems to be cooked. 

    Very fair point. Any changes are going to take weeks to take effect. The challenge is laid down though and our premiership coaches will have to earn their bucks.

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      On 24/03/2023 at 21:36, fr_ap said:

    Given his height and age, if it's a medical we're probably looking at 8-12 weeks. If an ACL we all know how long.

    Either way, we're going to have to figure out how to play without him for a while, so let's talk about that. Do they pull the trigger on Schache? I thought Tom's ruckwork was very poor and directly cost us quite a few goals. 

    Brodie will get better but he's a different player to Max and is not going to give us the contested marking presence we need. Not sure Schache takes a strong contested mark either. 

    Max is irreplaceable but we will need to do something. Is KFW too raw? He seems further progressed than Verrall. 

    I think Schache will come in for Gawn and they'll try to persist with Tom up forward until he either finds form or JVR kicks him out. 

    I agree ... rather than have to swing things around too much Schache for Gawn makes more sense.  Ruck forward with some time in the middle with Grundy in the middle (and back) to help out

    But I can't say I know a lot about Schache as a ruck/forward but others here could enlighten

    We don't want to burden Grundy with too much to do week in week out.  

    Anyway, if Schache plays that allows us to use T-Mac in a fashion where he can work up the ground leaving space for a non double-teamed Brown to lead into.  Worked in round 1

    But again, I'm not sure that Schache can do well enough to play the role we might need him for.  Worth a try though as Grundy can't do it all on his own and T-Mac's rucking is questionable (not effective)

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    The worry for me is he has already had 2 major knee injuries earlier in his career. I was 30 metres away at the Casey ground when he did his 2nd one right in front of me. The history of people with 3 major knee injuries is not good, and at Max's age recovery is longer. 

    Here's hoping a mild strain of something, and its 6-8 weeks maximum.

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    Let me throw a conspiracy theory out there. P.s. physio here.

    To me the communication was weird From Goody and Alan Richardson. 

    Melbourne and Gawn MAY be considering an no-op management of his ACL (if ACL is suspected). 

    In that case, they would definitely be murky with the results. Bulldogs did this and lied about Giansiracusa and his ACL. They went with a no-op management. The only reason for the consideration would be Gawn's age and premiership window.

    Whilst the Lachman's test was negative (95% accuracy), nothing was mentioned about an anterior draw. An anterior draw is an alternate test for an ACL, however it's less reliable. 

    A clinical guess can only assume its VERY unlikely he has done his ACL. Technically, Max is a 5% chance of an ACL. Enjoy your Saturday. 

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      On 24/03/2023 at 22:49, RyanD said:

    Let me throw a conspiracy theory out there. P.s. physio here.

    To me the communication was weird From Goody and Alan Richardson. 

    Melbourne and Gawn MAY be considering an no-op management of his ACL (if ACL is suspected). 

    In that case, they would definitely be murky with the results. Bulldogs did this and lied about Giansiracusa and his ACL. They went with a no-op management. The only reason for the consideration would be Gawn's age and premiership window.

    Whilst the Lachman's test was negative (95% accuracy), nothing was mentioned about an anterior draw. An anterior draw is an alternate test for an ACL, however it's less reliable. 

    A clinical guess can only assume its VERY unlikely he has done his ACL. Technically, Max is a 5% chance of an ACL. Enjoy your Saturday. 

    Feeling better already. 

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    I was out last night and missed the game until the last 5 minutes (luckily)

    cane on here to find out about Max - is it a confirmed ACL and he’s out for a year, or is it just rampant MFCSS atm?

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      On 24/03/2023 at 21:38, Demon17 said:

    Grateful the list  build is in the hands of people like Taylor and Lamb in these occasions, recognising our achilles heel (one of them) in ruck stocks.  Now with Schache we can at least have a form of solution.

    Heartfelt thoughts to Max at this time .  A wonderful leader.

     

    Schache would be behind TMac as a ruck option.

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      On 24/03/2023 at 22:49, RyanD said:

    Let me throw a conspiracy theory out there. P.s. physio here.

    To me the communication was weird From Goody and Alan Richardson. 

    Melbourne and Gawn MAY be considering an no-op management of his ACL (if ACL is suspected). 

    In that case, they would definitely be murky with the results. Bulldogs did this and lied about Giansiracusa and his ACL. They went with a no-op management. The only reason for the consideration would be Gawn's age and premiership window.

    Whilst the Lachman's test was negative (95% accuracy), nothing was mentioned about an anterior draw. An anterior draw is an alternate test for an ACL, however it's less reliable. 

    A clinical guess can only assume its VERY unlikely he has done his ACL. Technically, Max is a 5% chance of an ACL. Enjoy your Saturday. 

    Can I ask how you know the test you mentioned was negative? 


    Also what does it look like for a 31 year old giant with 2 previous recos to not undergo a surgical ACL repair? 
    What is the alternative?

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      On 24/03/2023 at 22:57, rpfc said:

    Schache would be behind TMac as a ruck option.

    I think Tmac’s busted foot disagrees. 
    He looks cooked. He says himself he’s playing with pain and needing management. Rucking is literally the last thing I think his body can handle. 

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