Big Max favours keeping bounce
MELBOURNE ruck star Max Gawn has defended the AFL’S centre bounce after calls for it to be scrapped following a spate of PCL injuries to leading ruckmen, saying the variables it brings offered more protection than a throw-up.
Collingwood captain Scott Pendlebury suggested this week the AFL should consider getting rid of the centre bounce after his teammate Brodie Grundy and Carlton’s Marc Pittonet both suffered PCL injuries in centre bounce collisions last weekend.
But Gawn, Melbourne’s premiership and All-australian ruckman, said he had never had any issues with his PCL in centre bounce ruck contests.
The Demons captain said he was a fan of the bounce from both a historical point of view and for the variability it brought to the ruck contest, which he suggested gave more protection than when the umpire tossed up the ball.
“I can only go off my history and my PCL has been fine in every angle ruck contest I have been involved in,” Gawn said on SEN.
“In saying that, I’m touching a lot of wood at the moment that it stays like that.
“But from my point of view, I am relatively comfortable with where the rules are in terms of the circle and they are trying to protect the rucks as much as they can.
“I’m a bounce fan. I think the bounce brings in some variables that almost protects your PCL but also gives you a chance against an incredible jumper …. the likes of Nic Nat and Majak Daw that we have at training.
“If you have bounce and variable bounce, it goes to dif
ferent parts of the circle, you can protect yourself a little bit more. Where if they throw it up that is almost a perfect three metre throw where you are both doing a one, two, three step jump and bang straight into each other.
“From a protection point of view, I’m a big bounce man, from a ‘I love the game and I love the history of the game’ I’m also a bounce man from that point of view as well.”
Grundy and Pittonet will join Nic Naitanui on the sidelines for an extended period after incidents last weekend.
Assessing the injuries to Grundy and Pittonet, Gawn described the Grundy incident as a “freak” occurrence but the way the Carlton big man was injured was more of a concern.
“If we look at the two PCL incidents from the weekend, I think we shouldn’t react to that – that looks like a freak of nature type incident,” Gawn said.
“I have never seen a PCL sort of go like that when Brodie was higher than actual (Sam) Draper in that ruck contest.
“The Pittonet and (Sean) Darcy is probably the more concerning one. That’s the one if I have lost two or three centre bounces in a row, I am doing what Pittonet and Darcy do, I am cracking in as hard as I can to make sure I win that hit.
“That looks like the one that we are all getting concerned about.’’