He revealed during the week that Matthew Pavlich was one of his football heroes growing up, but Gold Coast defender Steven May was hardly starstruck on Saturday night as he took the honours over Fremantle’s skipper in the GC SUNS’ loss at Patersons Stadium.

It was not a night for key forwards, but May barely gave his idol an inch of room for most of the night as the Docker ended the evening with just a single behind to his credit.

May let his fist do the talking, as he did against the Tigers.  A huge number of spoils contributed to him leading the team with 16 one per centers, which was seven more than any other player on the field, while no Gold Coast teammate logged more than six.

Importantly, he backed up his breakout game in round 1 where he effected 17 spoils against Richmond forwards Jack Riewoldt and Ty Vickery, in an effort which drew plenty of praise from former Melbourne champion Garry Lyon.

SUNS coach Guy McKenna was again impressed by the key defender who stood out as part of an inexperienced back six which managed to absorb plenty of pressure for most of the night.

“I’ve seen Pav close up…I know how sort of good he is as a player,” McKenna said.

“I thought Steven May, under siege did a fantastic job, as I thought most of our defenders did.”

Rory Thompson played his first senior match of the season while McKenna also talked up the efforts of second-gamers Clay Cameron and Sean Lemmens who both had solid outings in difficult conditions.

Debutant Kade Kolodjashnij learnt plenty from his first AFL match, and he will only benefit from seeing May at close quarters if he continues to punch out top notch performances.

“He’s played two good games in a row now, so look out for him for the rest of the year and he’s going really well,” Kolodjashnij said.