Demons star surpasses legends to set record that may never be broken
Melbourne captain Max Gawn has become the first player in V/AFL history to make nine All-Australian teams, setting a record even the game’s greatest players ever could not match.
The 34-year-old has had a near monopoly on the ruck position since emerging as one of the competition’s stars in 2016.
Max Gawn. AFL Photos via Getty Images
Since that point, Gawn has only missed All-Australian selection on two occasions; an injury-riddled 2017 and in 2023, when he shared ruck duties with Brodie Grundy across one strange season.
The Melbourne star has established himself as potentially the game’s greatest ever ruckman, thanks in part to his excellence in big games and his consistency across the last decade.
He ranks second all-time for total hit-outs, behind North Melbourne great Todd Goldstein, and has been an aerial force both as an intercept marker in defence and a target inside 50 for a number of years.
With his ninth blazer, Gawn achieves what no other player in history has been able to, leaving a group of six other all-time champions who are tied with eight.
St Kilda legend Robert Harvey made eight teams between 1992 and 2003, Adelaide great Mark Ricciuto eight between 1994 and 2005, Hawthorn and Sydney’s Lance Franklin eight between 2008 and 2018, Geelong star Patrick Dangerfield eight between 2012 and 2020; and then there’s Gary Ablett Jnr, who made eight consecutive teams between 2007 and 2014 and Gary Ablett Snr.
Of course, it’s worth mentioning that the All-Australian team really only came into full being in the 1980s and was only sporadically awarded before that.
There’s every chance Leigh Matthews or Kevin Bartlett or Bob Skilton or other legends of earlier generations could have amassed these numbers themselves. We’ll never know unless the league goes back through the years retroactively (how have they not already done this?).
Western Bulldogs captain Marcus Bontempelli picked up his eighth blazer on Tuesday night as well, joining that illustrious list.
He moves ahead of Craig Bradley, Paul Roos, Wayne Carey and Nathan Buckley, all of whom finished their careers with seven All-Australian nods.
At just 30, Bontempelli is every chance to join Gawn on nine in the coming years, but you never know what the future holds.
Nobody would have expected Ablett’s final blazer to come in 2014, or Dangerfield’s in 2020. This is why the record has held for so long.
Collingwood champion Nick Daicos might just wipe this record from existence in a few years anyway if he remains on his current trajectory.
Daicos picked up his fourth straight blazer on Tuesday night, having made the team every season since 2023. It’s worth remembering he debuted in 2022.
The 23-year-old is the runaway favourite to win the Brownlow Medal, and it’s frankly difficult to believe he has been beaten in the previous two counts.
Daicos has unquestionably put himself in the calculations to be the game’s best current player and, barring injuries, could just pile up All-Australian honours year after year.
Gawn has set the new high watermark at nine blazers - and there’s nothing to suggest he can’t yet win a 10th in 2027.
Bontempelli and Daicos will then have a number to chase across the remainder of their careers.
