MELBOURNE supporters take a breath – Max Gawn is going to be fine.
Amidst the wreckage of another poor performance against Brisbane on Sunday, the All Australian ruckman appears to have escaped serious injury to his left ankle.
Gawn left the Gabba early in the second quarter after landing awkwardly in a contest with Stefan Martin, returned, and was then dragged halfway through the last quarter.
The Demons trudge off the Gabba after fading out against the Lions. Picture: AFL Photos
Coach Simon Goodwin says Gawn will be "fine".
"Clearly it was a concern through the game," Goodwin said.
"He couldn't probably do the things that we wanted him to do.
"We played him forward at times to try and restrict him but once the game was done, we sort of pulled him off and tried to get him right for next week."
LIONS TOO GOOD FOR DEMONS Full match coverage and stats
Even with Gawn dominating the hit-outs early, Melbourne was getting punished around the clearances by a deep Lions midfield.
The Demons were surviving with counter-attacking goals, which Goodwin said was an "unhealthy" way to play.
Brisbane won the clearances 43-29 and contested footy 159-132, differentials Goodwin said were too large to overcome.
"I thought we got beaten pretty heavily in the midfield," he said.
"I thought (Lachie) Neale and (Dayne) Zorko were quite dominant.
"We tried some things with them. Our players had good numbers, but we got beaten at centre bounce really badly.
"We got beaten at clearance badly and also the scores from stoppage.
"In the end that weighed us down too much."
WATCH Simon Goodwin's full post-match press conference
The frustration boiled over at three-quarter time when Steven May and Sam Frost exchanged barbs over a blown defensive assignment.
Goodwin described it as a "healthy discussion".
"They're fine with each other, they haven't played a lot of footy together and they'll move on pretty quickly.
"But I think it's healthy that they care about how they're playing, they care about the actions defensively behind the ball and what they want to stand for, so I'm all up for that and making sure there's high accountability in the back half of the ground."
