Courtesy of the Gold Coast Bulletin.

TRUE BLUEY (with GCFC coach Guy McKenna)

LOSS like the one we experienced at the weekend certainty puts all the players and the coaches at the Gold Coast Football Club on notice.

You never want to suffer a 100-point loss like we did against the Northern Bullants at Visy Park, and I can only describe it as a good wake-up call for us all. It has to be treated as such.

I have told the group they have only failed when they stop trying. That was the big question mark for me - whether they had tried.

If we had given up, then we would have failed at the weekend. We lost at the weekend but I stilt think there was an effort there. In the past we may have crossed our is and got away with not dotting our i's.

At the weekend, the Bullants showed us that if we keep doing that then we will get opened up. Going through it as a midfield coach, I thought our structures were OK around the stoppages. But giving away half a metre is all it takes to get opened up. We were giving some opposition players one metre head starts and expecting to get away with it.

Ultimately this year is about standing up and growing up and eventually you have to stand on your own two feet. Players develop and mature at different rates. But for the players I have who I think are mature and our older boys, they can't keep using the excuse that we have a young group.

As for our younger boys, they have had experience now. They should be confident enough to know now they have played seven or so matches against men and they are still alive. We will try again this week when
we take on Coburg on Saturday.

As has been talked about, this match in Melbourne should see the debut of Karmichael Hunt. From a coaching point of view, we will try and minimise the distraction for the boys. But on the positive side, it might ultimately be a distraction away from the weekend's aberration. K is a great story for us with his size, his speed and his strength. There will be a tot of focus on him on Saturday and it will be the same for our players.

If we have got enough ball going inside 50 early in the game, I am sure my first message to the team will be - `Hey boys, it's not all about K'.I am sure the boys will look for him, which can cause a few knots and tangles. We are all wishing him well and he now knows what I like and don't like as a coach after sitting in
the box at the weekend.