Melbourne captain Max Gawn is getting used to sharing ruck duties with his new tap brother Brodie Grundy.
With the duo playing nine of 12 games together so far this season when they’ve been fit, the teammates are still learning how to best play alongside each other.
Once archrivals with Gawn a holder of six All-Australian blazers and Grundy holding two from his time at Collingwood, the 31-year-old says he’s enjoying now having a different relationship with the ex-Pie.
“It's funny, I've had to turn my arch nemesis into my best friend, and it's happened pretty quickly,” Gawn told SEN Whateley.
“I thought it might have taken a little bit more of getting used to.
“There’s still a little bit on-field stuff we’ve got to get right, we’ve got to work out what the best time to do all that stuff is like who's rucking at better times, and whether do some mid-quarter swaps and whatnot.
“But I'm really enjoying it.”
For the first time since joining the Dees Grundy faces his ex-teammates when Melbourne and Collingwood meet in a King’s Birthday clash on Monday.
Given Grundy was somewhat forced out of Collingwood in a salary dump move, Gawn expects his new teammate to be particularly fired up for this game.
“It’s obviously a big game for him,” Gawn said.
“Any club that shows a player at the door almost like that was, it's always a big game no matter what.
“Even with Brodie's character, he's so laid back and you can almost think that he's not even thinking about it, but I guarantee you, he probably is.
“I dare say he'll probably get the first centre bounce, I don't think I can talk him out of that.
“We've shared it a lot this year the first centre bounce, I feel like this is the one that he wants, especially if it's Mason (Cox), I think he's really good friends with Mason.
“So that'd be a great start.”
While Gawn previously had a star ruck partner in premiership teammate Luke Jackson, welcoming Grundy into the rotation has been a new challenge as he now shares the role on a far more even split.
Gawn says Dees coach Simon Goodwin was the one who convinced him that sharing the load with a fellow star was best for himself and the team going forward.
“The change is big for me,” Gawn said.
“Even though we had Luke Jackson, I was still about 85 per cent almost 90 per cent rucking.
“Luke Jackson rucked the back end of the third quarter in the Grand Final and it's infamous, he almost won us the Grand Final, but I was still doing about 90 per cent.
“I remember Goody (Simon Goodwin) sort of pitching it to me talking about because Luke Jackson started to get more and more time (in the ruck) and then we started talking about bringing Brodie in.
“I just questioned my worth and he explained it pretty simply, he goes, ‘I can get you a seventh All-Australian … or I can get you a second premiership as captain’.
“There's a chance that I could have done both, but you'd pick the second one every day of the week and he said, ‘The best way for us moving forward is to have two really big ruckmen who can mark the ball down the line, who can go forward and kick goals and who can really dominate that centre square’.
“All three of them, we're still waiting to perfect.
“Sometimes we nail it one week with one of them, we’ve never really had all three in one game.
“I do know that taller and bigger men tend to get bigger in finals, so I am excited to get to that part of the year.”
One aspect of Grundy’s arrival that may have been unforeseen is a drop-off in production for Gawn, a player that’s been among the AFL’s best for much of the last decade.
Now no longer rated an elite ruckman by Champion Data, Gawn was asked whether he listens to the outside noise questioning the move.
“I've missed four out of the eight games and I've had coaches' votes and probably four of them (the games I have played),” Gawn said.
“So that's a little bit of work for me, knowing that I'm still not getting the numbers that English and Marshall and these guys are throwing out now as a ruck and they are two of the best rucks going around.
“But I'm doing what the team needs me to do at that time and that's all I really care about.
“I need to be strong down the line when the ball goes for a bailout when I'm rucking, I need to help out my defenders.
“One thing that I'm not doing, I'm thinking I'm four goals nine from set shots.
“I’ve got to start to kick them.”
Monday’s clash between the first-placed Magpies and fourth-placed Demons is set for 3.20 pm (AEST) at the MCG.