By Michael Whiting
Gold Coast SUNS coach Guy McKenna says Jared Brennan will not be traded despite dropping the utility for a second time this season.
Brennan was left out of Saturday night's match against Carlton at Metricon Stadium despite the SUNS having 19 players on its injury list.
He was also dropped after the round seven loss against Greater Western Sydney earlier this year and spent three weeks in the reserves.
The 28-year-old with 158 games to his name has one year left on his contract and McKenna said he would not be traded.
"No. If he wants to be, that's a question you need to ask him," McKenna said on Friday morning.
I heard Kevin Sheedy and it was quite profound I thought … he said don't view the tag in poor form, view it in good form.
"He finished sixth in our best and fairest [last year] so we know he's a quality player. Under duress last season he performed really well.
"We hold hope he can show us and he'll determine that, whether he gets back in the side and remains at the footy club because of his passion, his intensity and his ability to play football."
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One man who sounded slightly surprised of Brennan's axing was Carlton coach Brett Ratten.
He's such a dangerous player. We've watched the Gold Coast SUNS for a while and he's someone you've got to be mindful of, Ratten said.
"Bluey (McKenna) knows what's going on there and that's their decision and I know he would have made the right one for the club."
Brennan started the year in defence and has played everywhere from half-forward to midfield to predominantly in the ruck in last Sunday's 64-point loss against Hawthorn.
Since returning against St Kilda in round 11, he has averaged 15 disposals and three tackles a match.
McKenna said the decision was based purely on his on-field form and had nothing to do with attitude.
His form hasn't been of a great standard and I think Jared's the first to admit that. He probably hasn't been meeting our expectations, he said.
"We understand how good Jared can be. Because of the nature of our list, we've been able to, rightly or wrongly, afford blokes a bit more latitude in the side, but there comes a time when we need to jump-start someone's football and to do that, after doing every other thing we think is possible, there comes a time where the only solution is to drop a player."
Brennan will play in the SUNS NEAFL team on Sunday and McKenna said he was still a chance of playing Adelaide in the final round next week.
The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL
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