IF YOU CATCH Max Gawn most days of the week, you’ll find he’s an affable, laid-back sort of bloke. But if you’re unlucky enough to catch him for two discrete hours on the weekend when he takes the field as captain and ruckman for the Melbourne Demons, you’ll find a monster.
“I can get angry within games,” says the premiership-winning captain, six-time All-Australian representative and lululemon ambassador, who thankfully is in a very pleasant mood as I chat to him today after a shoot in Melbourne’s Glen Iris. “But I try to make sure that I’m peaking on game day, which means the other six-and-a-half days of the week I try and show no aggression, almost the complete opposite. I’m a little bit calm day-to-day. It’s all about peaking for two hours.”
The reason Gawn needs to turn into the Hulk for two hours each week makes some sense when you take into account the position he plays in Aussie Rules. The ruck is one of the most physically and mentally exacting occupations in all of sports. “You have to stay aggressive,” Gawn says. “We have upwards of 100 contests per game, which is definitely the most out of any position and you’re going up against another 110-kilo animal. You have to be aggressive from minute one to minute 120.”
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If a ruck contest is akin to two rhinos bucking on the savannah, durability is understandably critical to succeeding in the position, says Gawn. “You have to be able to play long minutes, get hit a lot and play every week,” he says. “So that’s the durability, which can really test you, especially early on in your career when your bones and muscles aren’t quite grown up.”
To cope with the immense physical load of his position, Gawn prioritises muscular endurance in the gym. “I’ve had to learn how to enjoy weights,” he admits. “Especially in my position, it’s something that I’ve had to become pretty good at. Any mix of cardio and CrossFit is better, for me, than doing a heavy set of bench.”
On the track, Gawn and the rest of the Dees naturally do a lot of interval work to prepare for the relentless nature of a game predicated on short, intense efforts. “I love running. I’d love to just go for long runs,” Gawn says. “But we’re probably not doing anything further than 500 metres straight. It’s a lot of interval running, a lot of get up, tackle, bump, do a rep contest and go for a 200-metre run, then do it all again.” In preseason, Gawn says, sessions might last up to four hours. In season, he does 5-6 km of short efforts in an hour on the track.
Despite all the work, in a sport as attritional as AFL injuries are inevitable; you almost need to factor them into your training plans. This season saw Gawn sidelined with a lower leg injury for two weeks. Without a structured plan, these setbacks can be mentally sapping, Gawn says.
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“There are a couple of different things I use for this,” he says. “One is my household. I’ve got two kids who couldn’t care less if I’m injured and they rely on me to be a fully fit dad so there’s no real excuse there. It’s like getting told to harden up without getting told to harden up, by your own kids.”
He also likes to remind himself that he gets to train and look after his body for free, in fact, he’s paid to do it. “I got injured earlier in my career and one of the mindsets I always had was that if I wasn’t playing football, I’d be paying 50 bucks a week membership at Fitness First and I’d be training at 5 am,” he says. “Here I get to do it in the best facility, getting paid to do it at a reasonable hour while watching my mates train. That mindset has always held me in good stead.”
His latest injury, a hairline fracture at the base of his right fibula that occurred in the Demons’ Round 17 win against West Coast, was easier to deal with than, say, a hamstring strain, he says. “With the injury I had this time I couldn’t do anything about it,” he says. “It was a broken bone, it was an impact injury. I’m getting older, there’s no hiding away from that. But anything soft tissue, you almost blame yourself a tiny bit. You wonder if you could have done something different. The fact that this time was a broken leg, my mindset was completely different. I was like, ‘Ah, well I couldn’t do anything about it. I’m fully fit. It’s just a bit of bad luck came my way’.”
At 32, Gawn is conscious he doesn’t have too many more seasons ahead of him. Of course, he’d dearly love to add another premiership to the one he and the Demons won in 2021. But he also wants to prioritise family in this last chapter of his career. “I don’t know when my retirement’s coming, if it’s one year, if it’s two years, in that case I’d like to win two more premierships,” he laughs, when I ask him about his remaining goals. “But I’ve always been keen, ever since I got elected captain, to leave the club a better place by the time I leave. And I’ve now got a three-year-old who can really start to enjoy being involved. So, to bring smiles to those people near and dear to me is the goal for the next three years.”
Max Gawn is a lululemon ambassador
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Max Gawn’s ruckman workout
- Bench press x 10 at 80 per cent 1RM
- Bench press x 10 at 60 per cent IRM
- Ski-Erg – 15 cals
- X 5 rounds
Max Gawn’s game-day eating plan
BREAKFAST
- Bacon and eggs/Bircher muesli
LUNCH
- Sandwich
PRE-GAME
- Fried rice and coffee
- A mandarin and shot of beetroot juice
- Collagen supplement
- Handful of lollies
HALF-TIME
- Mandarin: “This is almost my favourite thing of the game to be honest. My dietitian peels it for me. It’s a beautiful gesture. I walk into a peeled mandarin and I just sit there for five minutes while catching my breath and thinking about the first half.
POST GAME
- Watermelon juice
- Protein shake: “Ideally, I’m getting some sort of protein in. The wetter the food, the better.”
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