Max Gawn had ‘eyes peeled’ for fugitive Dezi Freeman on pre-season camp in Bright

Melbourne captain Max Gawn has revealed the Demons were briefed by police before going on their pre-season camp in Bright.

Demons players completed their gruelling camp in late November, which included a hike up Mount Buffalo — near where Dezi Freeman went missing.

Freeman has been on the run since he allegedly shot and killed two police officers in Porepunkah, 300km northeast of Melbourne, on August 26.

Police believed he may have fled into the national park which is located not far from his home.

Gawn said they had their “eyes peeled” for the fugitive while completing their brutal hike.

“That camp that we did up in Bright,” he said on Triple M.

“Just before the hike, we actually got spoken to by police officers that were on site for the Bright shootings that were there earlier in the year.

“And obviously Dezi is still on the loose and we were doing a hike that he did ... that’s where he sort of ran away.

“Our eyes were peeled, we were actually a little bit scared as well, so it made us run a little bit quicker.”

Aside from a potential Freeman sighting, Gawn also shed light on new CEO Paul Guerra getting “lost”.

Gawn said Guerra “had a crack” at the brutal run, but mysteriously disappeared before being found by sports journalist Ed Bourke.

“I’m a foot in each camp here ... Did he get lost? Or was the hike hard and he purposely turned right when he knew to go left?” Gawn joked.

“The funniest thing was that he got lost, and we had a young Herald Sun journo out there, and he was the guy who found him.”

“That’s how the story gets out because Paul goes to the young journo ‘I’m lost’ and then, bang, there’s a story.”

Gawn also joked about deliberately taking his top off to complete the hike bare-chested.

While Gawn said it was another tough pre-season, he actually revealed they are getting easier.

“It’s getting easier because the high-performance team are getting smarter and they realise that just absolutely smashing people for no reason doesn’t really help you play football,” he said.

“Less running in terms of overall kilometres but more efficient running, more speed, more high speed.”

The Demons last week copped another pre-season blow with Jack Viney suffering an Achilles injury.

The veteran midfielder will be on light duties until the end of the year.

His injury comes after the club revealed Jake Bowey will be sidelined for six months following surgery on a Lisfranc injury.