AFL LIVE: ‘That’s just a cheap shot’: Demons breathe fire against Blues as heroes and villains emerge

Early last year, Max Gawn looked across the AFL’s emerging generation and made an extraordinary prediction.

Tom De Koning, Gawn suggested, had the potential to become the best player of his generation.

It was some endorsement from a man who knows a little about ruckmen. But when Gawn walks into the MCG on Saturday night with Melbourne’s season on the line, De Koning will not be there.

Instead, standing opposite Gawn will be the man who spent much of last season unable to get into Carlton’s team because of De Koning.