Article courtesy of West Coast Eagles

West Coast Eagles senior coach John Worsfold says Gold Coast SUNS coach and former teammate Guy McKenna is largely responsible for their improvement this year.

The Eagles and SUNS will lock horns this Saturday afternoon at Patersons Stadium, and Worsfold said their development should be no surprise to anyone.

“I don’t think it’s surprising Guy, and it’s not surprising me at how well they have improved this year and they are working to a long term plan,” Worsfold said.

“Last year, people were saying ‘Gold Coast haven’t developed from their first year to their second year’.

“[It’s a] pretty short sighted point of view, but a lot of people talked about it and wrote about it.

“Those same people are now talking about how well they are going this year.”

The SUNS have won six games this year, including collecting their biggest scalp in their short history when they beat Collingwood two weeks ago.

The SUNS won just three games in their first two years in the competition, but Worsfold admitted it would not be long before the SUNS and fellow newcomers GWS were “powerhouses.”

“I pretty much know what I will be seeing from GWS next year: massive improvement and building to becoming a powerhouse in the next four or five years,” he said.

“Gold Coast will be the same, massive improvement again this year and building to becoming a real power team.”

One of the biggest challenges facing the Eagles this weekend will be how to stop SUNS captain and 2009 Brownlow medallist Gary Ablett.

Ablett has been in sensational form once again this season, collecting a whopping 49 disposals in their win over Collingwood, but Worsfold said it was not just about stopping the skipper.

“Our strategy will to beat the Gold Coast, that is our number one strategy, beat Gold Coast,” he said.

Worsfold also said it was undecided whether he would run a full game tag on Ablett, and joked about his individual statistics in relation to the results of the games.

“The stats show that Gary Ablett, if he gets over 50 possessions, it’s not that good for Gold Coast, they got beaten by 97 points when he did that,” he joked.

“So, if he gets to 48, then we are going to start handballing to him, and get him up over 50 and we will be right.”