Football Staff

Marcus Ashcroft

GM - Football Operations

Ashcroft was recruited to join the Brisbane Bears in 1989 and played over 150 consecutive games amongst his 318 career appearances (including 145 goals). He was at various points a key part of the leadership group although he never captained the club.

A three time premiership player with the Brisbane Lions, Ashcroft retired at the end of 2003, fittingly with an AFL premiership medallion.

Scott Pyle

Football Operations Coordinator

Kristy Hamson

Football Administration Assistant

Guy McKenna

Senior Coach

Coaching Career:

After retiring from the AFL McKenna coached in the West Australian Football League as senior coach of the Claremont Football Club with considerable success before moving to an assistant coaching role with the West Coast Eagles and then the Collingwood Football Club to be under former mentor Michael Malthouse.

Playing Career:

McKenna was recruited to the West Coast Eagles for the 1988 season with a pre-draft selection. He played for the Eagles from 1988 until 2000, notching up 267 games and booting 28 goals. He formed one of the most feared backlines in the AFL, along with John Worsfold, Ashley McIntosh, Glen Jakovich and Michael Brennan and was known for his cool demeanour and reliability.

He won the Club Champion Award twice, once in 1989 and the other in 1999, finishing in the top three another five times.

He was captain from 1998 until his retirement at the end of 2000. He kicked a memorable goal on the final kick of his career in Round 22 2000 which frenzied the crowd at Subiaco Oval.

After retiring he coached in the West Australian Football League as senior coach of the Claremont Football Club with considerable success before moving to an assistant coaching role with the West Coast Eagles and then the Collingwood Football Club to be under former mentor Michael Malthouse.

McKenna was recruited to the West Coast Eagles for the 1988 season with a pre-draft selection. He played for the Eagles from 1988 until 2000, notching up 267 games and booting 28 goals. He formed one of the most feared backlines in the AFL, along with John Worsfold, Ashley McIntosh, Glen Jakovich and Michael Brennan and was known for his cool demeanour and reliability.

He won the Club Champion Award twice, once in 1989 and the other in 1999, finishing in the top three another five times.

He was captain from 1998 until his retirement at the end of 2000. He kicked a memorable goal on the final kick of his career in Round 22 2000 which frenzied the crowd at Subiaco Oval.

Matt Primus

Assistant Coach

Coaching Career

Matthew Primus joined the GC SUNS as Assistant Coach in 2012, where he will develop the club’s young midfield talent. After retiring from the AFL in 2004, Primus moved into an assistant coaching role at the Port Adelaide under mentor Mark Williams. When Williams stepped down as senior coach midway through the 2010 season, Primus initially took over caretaker coach, before being appointed the top job after finishing the season with 5 wins out of 7 games. Primus then spent three seasons as senior coach as the club, before joining the GC SUNS.

Playing Career

Primus began his career with the Fitzroy Football Club, where he played 20 games and kicked 5 goals in his first season, emerging as one of club’s key position players. After Fitzroy finished their last season in the AFL, Primus signed with Port Adelaide as an uncontracted zone player before the club’s first season in the AFL.

Primus enjoyed a successful and illustrious career with Port Adelaide, captaining the club from 2001-2005 whilst establishing himself as one of the games top ruckmen.

Dean Solomon

Assistant Coach

Playing Career:

Solomon made his AFL debut in 1998 for Essendon and was part of their 2000 premiership team.

On 13 October 2006 Solomon was traded to the Fremantle Dockers, following a trade of draft picks No. 42 and No. 47, Fremantle also gained pick No. 52 from the Bombers. He links up with close friend, forward Chris Tarrant who was traded to the Dockers on the same day from Collingwood.

On 18 February 2010 Solomon announced his retirement from AFL football due to a painful degenerative knee injury.

He joined the new Gold Coast Football Club as an assistant coach in the months before they entered the AFL for the 2011 season.

Andy Lovell

Assistant Coach

Playing Career:

Lovell was recruited to Melbourne from Tasmanian club Glenorchy and in his debut season played in their losing Grand Final to Hawthorn Football Club. A ruck-rover, Lovell was handy near goals and in a game at the Melbourne Cricket Ground (MCG) against Richmond in 1993 he kicked a career best eight goals as his side won by a record 121 points.

The previous year he ran second in Melbourne's Best and fairest. Lovell was traded to West Coast for the 1996 AFL season and spent three years in their midfield before retiring.

Coaching Career:

He later became coach of the Sandringham Zebras and is currently an assistant coach at the Gold Coast SUNS.

Mark Riley

Assistant Coach

Coaching Career:

Mark Riley joined the GC SUNS as Assistant Coach in 2012, bringing more than 18 years worth of AFL and WAFL coaching experience. Riley, who had previously coached at Carlton, will fulfil the tole of forwards coach; bringing a wealth of knowledge and proven experience to the SUNS.

The West Australian began his AFL coaching career after joining the Fremantle Dockers in 1995 as a development coach, before progressing to an assistant coaching role in 1998. In 2001, Riley returned to the WAFL where he coached Claremont for two seasons, before heading to the Melbourne Demons in 2003 where he accepted a role on their coaching panel. During 2007, Riley was appointed caretaker coach for the final nine matches of the season after Neale Daniher stepped down as senior coach. In 2008, Riley joined Carlton where he spent five seasons with the Blues before joining the GC SUNS in 2012.

Shaun Hart

Reserves/Development Coach

Playing Career:

Shaun Hart played his first senior game in the first match of the 1990 season. He initially struggled with the demands of professional football and played a great deal of football in reserve grade. This allowed him to gain a place in the Bears' only premiership side by being eligible to play in the 1991 reserve grade Grand Final.

In 2001 he was awarded his highest individual honour, the Norm Smith Medal, as best on ground in the Lions' first premiership win. He also went on to play important roles in the Lions successful campaigns in 2002 and 2003.

In the 2004 Preliminary Final, with the Lions poised to enter a playoff for a record-equalling fourth consecutive premiership, Hart was unlucky enough to find himself in the path of teammate Daniel Bradshaw on a lead. Bradshaw was unable to avoid a collision and Hart emerged with massive facial injuries. He was immediately taken to hospital, where shocked medical staff commented that his injuries were consistent with being in a car crash at speed without wearing a seat belt. As a consequence of consistent head injuries, for much of his career, he wore a soft helmet.

Unable to take his place in the Lions side for the 2004 Grand Final, he was forced to watch from his hospital bed as his team failed to maintain a halftime lead over Port Adelaide due to injuries to key forwards Jonathan Brown and Alastair Lynch. He announced his retirement from football not long afterwards.

Brett Munro

Opposition Coach

Coaching Career:

Brett Munro joined the GC SUNS as Opposition Coach in 2011, bringing with him more than eleven years experience in a similar role. Prior to working at the SUNS, Munro had been serving Carlton as the team’s full time Opposition Coach and Analyst.

Munro’s role is based in Melbourne.

Ben Mathews

Development Coach

Coaching Career:

Ben Matthews joined the GC SUNS as Development Coach in 2012; his first role with an AFL club since retiring from the Swans at the end of 2008. Mathews and his family relocated from Sydney to the Sunshine Coast following his retirement from the Swans. The former Sydney Premiership player will work closely with Shaun Hart and the younger GC SUNS players.

Playing Career

Ben Matthews is a former AFL player for the Sydney Swans, where he was a member of the 2005 premiership side that defeated the West Coast Eagles. He played 198 games for the Swans before announcing his retirement from the AFL in 2008.

Malcolm Blight

Coaching Advisor

AFL Career:

Malcolm Blight has enjoyed tremendous success as both an AFL player and coach. Having played, coached and won a Brownlow Medal with the North Melbourne Football Club in the 70s, coached Geelong in three AFL Grand Finals and coached the Adelaide Crows to back-to-back Premierships in 1997-98, Blight is considered one of the AFL’s all-time Legends to have been involved in the AFL/VFL.  Originally joining the GC SUNS in 2009 as a board member, Blight stepped down as Director of Football to take up a part-time advisory role to GC SUNS coach Guy McKenna.

Simon Fletcher

Player Development Manager

Simon Fletcher joined the GC SUNS as Player Development Manager in 2010, and is a former AFL footballer who played with the Carlton Football Club and the Richmond Football Club, where he played a career total of 90 games.

Fletcher had worked with Leading Teams Australia as a leadership and development facilitator. His role includes the management of the SUNS Football Apprenticeship and Development and Welfare programs.

Andrew Johnston

Development Coach

Andrew Johnston joined the GC SUNS as Talent Academy Manager in 2010, before accepting a development coaching role in 2012.

Prior to working with the SUNS, Johnston was heavily involved with AFL Victoria where he spent nine years with the Calder Cannons and Eastern Ranges FC.