{"id":633186,"date":"2026-04-27T02:21:16","date_gmt":"2026-04-27T02:21:16","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/633186\/"},"modified":"2026-04-27T02:21:16","modified_gmt":"2026-04-27T02:21:16","slug":"the-giant-who-afl-clubs-should-be-targeting","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/633186\/","title":{"rendered":"The Giant who AFL clubs should be targeting"},"content":{"rendered":"

Overlooked GWS power forward Max Gruzewski<\/a> should be high on target lists for rival clubs who need to bolster their front half.<\/p>\n

The Giants have largely been settled on their forward mix, and more often than not, bypass Gruzewski when Adam Kingsley<\/a> selects his team.<\/p>\n

The 21-year-old, who is out of contract at season’s end, has played 15 games since the beginning of 2023, but has failed to cement his spot in a side consisting of Jesse Hogan<\/a>, Aaron Cadman<\/a>, Jake Riccardi<\/a>, Jake Stringer<\/a> and Callum Brown<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Gruzewski has been forced to toil away in the VFL for the better part of his AFL<\/a> career to date, playing 44 games. Only five of those he’s gone goalless.<\/p>\n

But his latest performance reminded those he’s still in the top-flight system, kicking five majors against North Melbourne.<\/p>\n

Gruzewski was joined by Riccardi and Brown in the VFL over the weekend, further illustrating the forward-line squeeze at the Giants.<\/p>\n

“Max has played excellent football at VFL level, no question about it,” Gruzewski’s agent Scott Lucas said in July last year.<\/p>\n

“The Giants are very settled on the structure and personnel they have in the front six at the moment.<\/p>\n

“We have had calls from clubs. We’ve had as many calls about Max as any other player on our list. We hear clubs talking about the need for forward power.<\/p>\n

“He’s under contract, and we’ve had some discussions with the Giants about how that all looks going forward. We’re a long way from reaching any particular point.”<\/p>\n

Will this interest renew?<\/p>\n

There’s multiple clubs that need ready-made key forwards.<\/p>\n

Collingwood is one that immediately springs to mind, and its interest in Ben King<\/a> and Mitch Lewis has signalled to the competition of their desperate need for another key forward.<\/p>\n

Essendon, with its age profile and stage of its rebuild, should consider Gruzewski to partner with Nate Caddy<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Overlooked GWS power forward Max Gruzewski should be high on target lists for rival clubs who need to…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":633187,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[560],"tags":[638,64,63,55,639,85],"class_list":["post-633186","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-afl","tag-afl","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-australian-football-league","tag-australianfootballleague","tag-sports"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633186","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=633186"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/633186\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/633187"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=633186"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=633186"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=633186"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}