Max Gawn, the captain of the Melbourne Demons, recently discussed the team’s pre-season camp held in Bright, which included a challenging hike up Mount Buffalo. The camp concluded in late November. At the wrap-up, local police provided a special in-progress briefing on the continued search for Dezi Freeman, a local veteran midfielder who has been missing since going missing in an August episode.
Prior to the Demons launching their hike, police presence on location informed them. The officers’ presence reflected the Bright shootings that occurred earlier this year. Gawn noted, “Just before the hike, we actually got spoken to by police officers that were on site for the Bright shootings that were there earlier in the year.” The possibility of law enforcement action cast a very ominous shadow over the camp. This was further escalated as Freeman remains at large after allegedly shooting two police officers dead in Porepunkah.
Gawn expressed his awareness during the hike, stating, “And obviously Dezi is still on the loose and we were doing a hike that he did… that’s where he sort of ran away.” The captain admitted that the team kept their “eyes peeled” during the hike, reflecting a mix of concern and urgency: “Our eyes were peeled, we were actually a little bit scared as well, so it made us run a little bit quicker.”
In a hilarious aside, Gawn told the story of his own hike experience, including the fact that he purposely set out to complete his bare-chested. He shared a story from new CEO Paul Guerra’s first walk, having veered off course during the walk and led himself astray. “I’m a foot in each camp here … Did he get lost? Or was the hike hard and he purposely turned right when he knew to go left?” Gawn pondered. “The funniest thing was that he got lost, and we had a young Herald Sun journo out there, and he was the guy who found him.”
The pre-season camp came with plenty of difficulties. The Demons have been dealing with injuries. Captain Jack Viney is fighting an Achilles injury, while Jake Bowey will miss six months after surgery to repair a Lisfranc injury. Despite these setbacks, Gawn remarked on how the intensity of training has evolved: “It’s getting easier because the high-performance team are getting smarter and they realise that just absolutely smashing people for no reason doesn’t really help you play football.”
Dezi Freeman will be sidelined for the rest of the year with light duties for now. That’s largely because he’s still dealing with an injury he suffered earlier this season. As the Melbourne Demons prepare for their upcoming matches, Gawn’s leadership and the team’s resilience remain crucial as they navigate both physical challenges and external circumstances.
