{"id":504727,"date":"2026-02-26T06:26:09","date_gmt":"2026-02-26T06:26:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/504727\/"},"modified":"2026-02-26T06:26:09","modified_gmt":"2026-02-26T06:26:09","slug":"it-was-over-max-gawn-on-the-end-of-an-era-and-his-surprise-choice-to-succeed-him","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/504727\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018It was over\u2019: Max Gawn on the end of an era, and his surprise choice to succeed him"},"content":{"rendered":"

\u201cI think a breath of fresh air,\u201d Gawn told this masthead when asked about the biggest change King had brought to the Demons.<\/p>\n

\u201cA lot of us, Simon [Goodwin] himself, were carrying a lot of baggage after not nailing our finals campaign in 2022-23 and bottoming out and not going well in \u201924.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fact that\u2019s been given a whole new fresh start \u2013 we\u2019ve got a coach who wasn\u2019t involved in that, a CEO who wasn\u2019t involved in that, and a president who wasn\u2019t involved in that. We\u2019ve got multiple players who weren\u2019t involved in that.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s almost like if you were still stuck in that era, we\u2019ve moved past that.\u201d<\/p>\n

On the eve of his seventh season as skipper, Gawn said vice captain Jack Viney, Jake Lever, Tom Sparrow and Trent Rivers all were capable of succeeding him as skipper but anointed Langdon for the role. Langdon led the Dees in their practice match last week against North Melbourne.<\/p>\n

\u201cIf I gave it up today, Jack Viney, if I gave it up next year, I like Ed Langdon,\u201d Gawn said of who he\u2019d opt for as Melbourne\u2019s next skipper. \u201cI reckon he\u2019s got a bit about him.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not that Gawn has any plans of vacating the post.<\/p>\n

\u201cI still love the captain part of it,\u201d Gawn said. \u201cThe thing I love is interacting with my teammates. That\u2019s the bit I love about football.<\/p>\n

\u201cI love training. Casey\u2019s great because no journos come to Casey so it\u2019s literally just 45 players and their coaches. I get to lead my men, they get me to act like an 18-year-old with the Gen Zs, [it\u2019s] so much fun.<\/p>\n

\u201cThat\u2019s the bit I love. I love training, having conversations, and I love interacting with young men. I do love leading, I love the job, I don\u2019t take the job lightly.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u2018I knocked him out\u2019: Toby Greene reveals he punched his father after AFL match<\/p>\n

Greater Western Sydney captain Toby Greene has revealed he punched his father in the rooms after a game, embarrassed by his drunken behaviour.<\/p>\n

\"GWS<\/p>\n

GWS star Toby Greene.Credit: AFL Photos<\/p>\n

Greene made the revelation in the first episode of the Amazon Prime Video series Final Siren: Inside the AFL<\/a> where he details his troubled relationship with his estranged father Michael Greene<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Greene\u2019s father was jailed for nine months<\/a>, reduced on appeal, for assaulting a female police officer while watching his son\u2019s Giants in their heavy loss to Richmond in the 2019 grand final.<\/p>\n

The Giants star\u2019s dressing room confrontation with his father came earlier in his career.<\/p>\n

\u201cI knocked him out in the change rooms because he was drunk and carrying on,\u201d Greene said in the series, which premiered on Wednesday night.<\/p>\n

\u201cHe\u2019s pretty loud and boisterous and he\u2019s extremely drunk. And I was just embarrassed and just told him to f— off and punched him. So, yeah, it\u2019s hard.<\/p>\n

\u201cLike the reason I love footy is because of him and got into it. That\u2019s what I\u2019ll take with me, and then you learn your lessons from some things that he\u2019s done that you can\u2019t do.\u201d<\/p>\n

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Greene spoke publicly in 2020 about his father\u2019s troubles in The Phil Davis Podcast, hosted by former GWS captain Phil Davis, saying his father had a \u201cprofound impact\u201d on his career but \u201csome of the stuff outside of that left a bit to be desired\u201d.<\/p>\n

He was more candid in the series.<\/p>\n

\u201cTen, 15 years drinking alcohol and drugs probably taken a fair toll on his body and brain,\u201d Greene said.<\/p>\n

Greene is among the best players of his generation but has an extensive tribunal rap sheet, racking up $47,850 in fines in his 14-season career. He has also been rubbed out for 16 games, his most recent suspension coming in last year\u2019s Sydney Derby in July.<\/p>\n

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The series shows a conversation between Greene and his wife Georgia Stirton in the days after the derby, where the player is berated for what he describes as his latest \u201cbrain fart\u201d.<\/p>\n

Stirton outlined the impact the player\u2019s poor on-field discipline had on their family, saying it led to online abuse from trolls.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople are saying, \u2018I hope family members die\u2019 or, \u2018You should kill yourself\u2019,\u201d Stirton said in the documentary.<\/p>\n

\u201cOr I have a DM saying, \u2018You know, I saw him cheating with girls\u2019 and, \u2018Has he bashed you up?\u2019<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"\u201cI think a breath of fresh air,\u201d Gawn told this masthead when asked about the biggest change King…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":504728,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[2],"tags":[43,44,41,39,42,40],"class_list":["post-504727","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-headlines","tag-headlines","tag-news","tag-top-news","tag-top-stories","tag-topnews","tag-topstories"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504727","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=504727"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/504727\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/504728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=504727"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=504727"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=504727"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}