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By Michael Whiting

Gold Coast SUNS coach Guy McKenna has laughed off criticism of captain Gary Ablett's 53-disposal display against Collingwood last Sunday, saying his dominance did not stifle the development of the SUNS younger players.

Collingwood premiership captain Tony Shaw was among a chorus of critics during the week saying the SUNS teenagers were learning nothing by giving their skipper the ball and watching him run amok.

But McKenna said his young team was learning from the Brownlow medallist.

"It doesn't stifle anyone's development," McKenna said.

"Naturally it will be one person's development, because he's in the middle someone else can't be in there, but it's only one person, I don't think it's massive in the scheme of things.

"He got 53 possessions on the weekend because of his sheer competitiveness and work-rate. I don't ever want to stop a player doing that."

McKenna said there was no "give it to Gaz" rule, and Ablett ended up with a League-record number of disposals because of his hard work.

"I'm not going to alter the way Gary plays. I think the way he goes about it is fantastic. He's great for the group, his ability to lead and coach out there is fantastic.

"He needs to be around the football so we have a better chance of winning.

"We move him forward, but we move him forward and it doesn't go down there and everyone says we need to move Gary into the middle.

"We pick a side to win each week, and we plan to win each week, and part of that is Gary doing his rotations, getting off the ground and his time up forward.

"Yes it works and sometimes it doesn't work, but I'm never going to stop him working and competing and that's what he does very well."

The SUNS made four changes ahead of Saturday's match against St Kilda at Metricon Stadium, including recalling utility Jared Brennan after three weeks in the reserves.

Brennan was dropped after the round-seven loss to Greater Wester Sydney for his poor decision-making and execution, but McKenna said he deserved his recall.

"He was gutted, no doubt. He was obviously shaken by that. We'd spoken to him three weeks ago that enough was enough," McKenna said.

"The simple thing for Jared was about earning respect in the playing group. He's gone down to the seconds and displayed that.

"If they (the players) respect his performance and his effort, he'll stay in the side. If he does things outside the team structure he puts himself at risk. He's learned his lesson and we think he's going to be a far better player."

McKenna said the SUNS would need to be wary of St Kilda's fleet-footed small forwards Stephen Milne, Terry Milera and Ahmed Saad if they were to turn around a 92-point loss against the Saints in round two.

The views in this story are those of the author and not necessarily those of the clubs or the AFL