Former Western Bulldogs captain Bob Murphy has put the onus on this current crop of players at Gold Coast to commit to the club and build its foundations.
Across their short history, the Suns have not yet made finals. Top players young and old have departed year after year, seeking more successful cultures and September action.
Gerard Healy told AFL Nation on Friday night that he anticipates another player exodus at the club in 2022, should they not begin to look like a competitive unit.
Murphy however is sick of the situation on the Gold Coast and hopes the current group of players takes it upon themselves to change things.
“Gerard Healy on the weekend said Gold Coast is again on notice that if they can’t put wins on the board next year there will be more player exodus and I think most people go ‘yeah, no that’s fair enough’,” Murphy told SEN’s Bob and Andy.
“When is it on the players? Stay! Stay.
“We know they’ve got talent. They’ve got young talent. Stay. Build it. What a privilege to build an AFL club.
“What gives you the right as a 20-year-old ‘oh it’s been a couple of hard years, I’m out of here I’ll go straight to a flag’. No!
“They should have enough in their locker room saying ‘no, stay, we’re going to build something, this is an absolute privilege to get picked. I’m not entitled to say I want that or I deserve that’.
“You know what you deserve? You deserve a chance.
“It has been Gold Coast mark two with Stuart Dew and the Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson draft. So this group … I feel like they can do it differently to what happened before all of that.
“No one bats an eyelid when Gerard Healy says that and he’s probably right. If they lose a lot next year players will go, ‘you know what, too hard, I’m out of here’.
“This is not an attack on the players. This is an attack on all of us that just go ‘that’ll probably happen’. It doesn’t have to be like that.”
The Suns finished 2021 16th on the ladder with just seven wins.
Gerard Healy is expecting another Gold Coast player exodus if they don't improve in 2022.
— AFL Nation (@AFLNation) August 22, 2021
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