Melbourne captain and eight time All-Australian Max Gawn has opened up about the AFL trade period which saw the Demons trade stars Clayton Oliver and Christian Petracca.
The trade period was a busy one for the Demons who traded in Max Heath (St Kilda), Changkuoth Jiath (Hawthorn), Brody Mihocek (Collingwood) and Jack Steele (St Kilda).
However, the talking point was trading Petracca, the 2021 Norm Smith Medalist, to Gold Coast for three first round picks and four time Dees best and fairest winner in Oliver to GWS for a future third round pick.
Gawn opened up about both players leaving the club, explaining how he gets used to players being traded from one club to another.
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“I think you’ve just got to grow up a little bit in the world of footy, it’s not a forever thing,” Gawn said on Triple M Rush Hour with JB & Billy.
“We had this group of players that had been together for a long time and externally other clubs didn’t have that. We’re quite the minority.
“It was always going to come to an end and we’ve had premiership players that moved on — Luke Jackson, James Harmes, James Jordon — these sort of guys. We’re still very close to them. I’m still very close to ‘Harmesy’, I still talk to Luke Jackson most days.”
Gawn added that he hopes Oliver can thrive in a new environment at the Giants whilst saying Petracca's deal will help the club long term.
“If you looked at Clayton Oliver, and I’m as close to him as anyone, you go: ‘Jeez, a fresh start would be nice to him.’
“I hope we win it, but I hope ‘Clary’ is sitting there Brownlow Medal night with a Brownlow around his neck and he changes his luck around as much as that. I’ll be his number one supporter.”
“Trac’s (Petracca) a star and we would have loved to keep him, but we were able to get a pretty good deal, which three first round picks — a Jeremy Cameron, Charlie Curnow-esque type deal — including two under 10,” Gawn added.
“It’s a really good deal for both parties.”