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“And we’ve touched on that as a playing group coming back, what we think we need to improve on. Our defenders were top four rated in the AFL but everywhere else was relatively low. So the mids and forwards have got together and we want to create something that hopefully is as good as our defensive group, and that could take us to the pointy end. This coaching group’s got a game plan that the players think is going to take us, hopefully to the pointy end of September.”
Lumumba has launched legal action against the Magpies over the manner in which he was treated by the club during his time at Collingwood. The defender finished his career with a couple of seasons at Melbourne in 2015 and 2016.
“I’ve fallen out of touch, purely just because of different lives. But I’ve got a great friend in Chris Dawes, who’s a great friend of Heritier,” Gawn said. “It comes up in conversation every now and then. I loved him, he was a terrific player at Melbourne for the two years we had him. Obviously there’s a bit of noise around him at the moment, but I’m there for support if he ever needed it.”
Meanwhile, Gawn said he was happy with the AFL’s new concussion protocols which have left defender Steven May facing a match-day test on Saturday week to determine whether he is available for the side’s season opener against Freo.
May suffered the concussion on Monday and the Dees’ round one game against the Dockers falls right on the league’s new 12-day mandatory concussion rest period.
“I’d love Steve to wake up the morning of and tick every box, but if he hasn’t ticked a box I’d also love Steve not to play from a welfare point of view,” Gawn said.
