It’s been a break-out season for McKenna’s rapidly developing senior list, and while those around the club will tell you the sole focus heading into this season was continue developing whilst gaining the respect and credibility from the code’s varied stakeholders, it’s fair to say the Gold Coasters will be enjoying their short break pleased with their performance to date, but well aware there is plenty more to be achieved in season 2013.
A rapidly-improving playing group, coupled with fierce competition for spots and a growing belief has seen the kids from the Coast soar to new heights this year – with clearances a key indicator of the enormous strides the team is making on-field.
After finishing the 2012 Premiership Season in the bottom bracket for clearances (ranked 17th), McKenna’s ball-bustling pack winners are currently the competitions clearance kings and lead the League with a total of 478 with an average of 39.8 per game.
Assistant coach Andy Lovell says the exciting thing about the results isn’t the number itself, but that there is still plenty of improvement in the group.
“It was an area we clearly identified at the end of last year that we needed to improve in,” Lovell said.
“The structures have been really sound and I think the key has been consistency, we’ve been running a consistent group of players around the majority of the first-half of the season and so that’s probably been the big factor for us.”
Lovell says there’s little coincidence that the club’s significant improvement around the ruck can be traced back to the arrival of Matthew Primus on the Gold Coast and his appointment as stoppage coach.
“Matty Primus has had an enormous amount of experience as a ruckman, as a midfield coach and as a senior coach, so he brings a lot of experience and knowledge which he has been able to impart on our group, they’ve really bought into his messages.” he said.
He might have had to shoulder the bulk of the work around the contested football while his club’s emerging stars found their feet against the AFL’s bigger bodies, however Ablett’s ability to now float around goals shows the days of GC SUNS being reliant on their superstar skipper to dominate the game in order for them to be competitive, could be behind them.
“There’s no doubt that we’ve gone from having an enormous reliance on Gary Ablett to less of a reliance because he’s spent more time up forward,” said Lovell.
“It’s allowed the likes of Jaeger O’Meara, Dion Prestia, Luke Russell and Matty Shaw to gain more experience and exposure around the stoppages.”
“And as our young player’s gain more experience there form improves, their ability to win stoppages and clearances improve off the back of that, so we’re very excited about what’s to come.”
