Gawn says attack key

MELBOURNE needs to fight fire with fire if it is any chance of upsetting AFL champion Richmond in their Anzac Day eve clash, according to ruckman Max Gawn.

While shutting down a rampant Richmond at the MCG on Tuesday is key, Gawn says the Demons need to focus on improving their own offensive output. Melbourne was kept scoreless in the second and third quarters of their 67-point loss to Hawthorn last round.

“We were really poor offensively,” Gawn said yesterday.

“We had some really poor offensive stuff that came up and hopefully we can improve on that and there is a better performance this week.”

The star big man said it was up to the team’s most experienced players like himself, Nathan Jones and ex-Hawk Jordan Lewis to step up and show more leadership.

He said his team needed to be more mentally tough.

“We’re struggling a little bit with stopping momentum.”