Guy McKenna has called on his experienced players to lead from the front against Port Adelaide tomorrow afternoon, with only five of his travelling twenty-two over the age of 25. 

“In those critical moments you lean on those senior players because they have more experience dealing with those situations,” he said.

The task of improving the club’s win-loss record of 7-12 will be left up to Gary Ablett, Jarrod Harbrow, Danny Stanley, Greg Broughton and Tom Murphy, with veterans Nathan Bock (injury) and Campbell Brown (suspension) unable to take their place in the side.  

But despite the significant drop off in AFL experience, McKenna remained in high spirits when speaking to reporters at Coolangatta Airport on Friday – drawing comfort from the team’s scrappy 13-point victory over Melbourne last weekend.

“We know we are still in our infancy but last week we were able to win ugly on the back of Gary having his quietest game of the season, as the rest of the team shouldered the workload and got us over the line,” McKenna said.

“Whether Gary has a good or bad game the exciting thing for us is that the team is starting to gel – that is the pleasing thing.”

And while McKenna was quick to point out the difficulty of replacing Bock and Brown’s combined 345 games of AFL experience, he could immediately see the benefits from playing the likes of Timmy Sumner, Jack Hutchins, Jackson Allen, Josh Hall and Gold Coaster Andrew Boston.  

“We can’t replace the 400 odd games of experience with Brown and Bock out of the side but we can replace them with youthful experience,” he said.

“Timmy Sumner will get to play a full game, and the others that are coming in are given an opportunity and that is great for us going forward. They get exposed to AFL football against a finals side and on the wider expansions of AAMI stadium.

“It’s an important stepping stone in their development and they are certainly excited for it.”

While the Gold Coast may not be vying for a spot in the finals, McKenna said that wouldn’t stop the playing group from doing their best to disrupt the competition’s September placings. 

“I think if they get across this game then mathematically they are inside the eight, so are in a position where we can upset the formation of the eight so we’re pretty keen to do that.”

“We have three games left so we want to make sure we finish off as well as we started the season.”