By Michael Whiting
CAPTAIN Gary Ablett has called on his Gold Coast teammates to be more selfish in front of goal, after the SUNS' over-use cost them dearly in Saturday night's loss to North Melbourne.
Too many times the Suns got the ball between 50 and 70m out from goal and instead of shooting or pumping it deep to a contest, would look for an extra handball that eventually led to a turnover.
Gold Coast finished with the unusual ratio of 177 kicks to 188 handballs.
Even the supposedly handball happy Kangaroos had it 245-155 in favour of kicks.
Ablett was full of praise for his Suns' effort and commitment, but had a simple message.
"The hard thing is, the boys went out to play team footy today and sometimes we need the boys to be a bit more selfish," Ablett said.
"Guys at times had the opportunity to have a shot at goal and were going out of their way to give a handball and it probably wasn't there.
"It's a good thing they are being selfless, but at the same time they need to learn when it's time for them to be a bit more selfish."
Coach Guy McKenna agreed with Ablett's assessment of over-use, but said with a 0-11 record entering the match, it was no surprise they lacked confidence.
"That's obviously just the cycle we're in at the moment," McKenna said.
"But the pleasing thing was we won some footy, we moved it forward and we came up seven points short."
Ablett said although the young Suns had improvement all over the ground, they particularly had to work on the chemistry between the midfield and the forward line.
The captain said the young key forwards were still learning their craft.
"It's just a matter of learning to lead better and not waiting for the guy with the ball to look you in the eyes before you lead," he said.
"The good sides are good at that, when you come out of the centre they've figured how to get five or ten metres on their man. I'm sure our young guys will figure out how to do that eventually and get more uncontested marks in the forward fifty."
The Suns have a bye next weekend and return against West Coast at Patersons Stadium in round 14.
Ablett said he thought a win was not far away.
"We've just got to keep working hard on the training track and the gym and I believe eventually it'll come," he said.
"We've got a lot of talent but it takes hard work to get there as well and I think the boys are starting to understand that.
"We've had a few close games this year that could have gone our way but I think with experience we'll learn to win those close games. We'll get a few wins if we hang in there and keep working hard and keep things positive and moving forward."
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL
