Sam Collins backs Gold Coast Suns defender Mac Andrew to bounce back from mistakes

Gold Coast Suns defender Sam Collins has gone in to bat for Mac Andrew after the star defender was criticised for his errors during the Suns’ defeat to the Giants on Sunday.

Gold Coast Suns defender Sam Collins went into bat for Mac Andrew after the young gun was criticised for his efforts during the Suns’ loss to the GWS Giants on Sunday.

Andrew, 21, signed a massive contract extension with the Suns last year taking him through until at least 2030 but was on the receiving end of criticism from Fox Footy commentator David King who claimed Andrew had “four or five horrors” in the final quarter.

However, Collins has called for calm and believes Andrew will be better for those mistakes.

“He’s obviously a super footballer, I can speak from my own experiences that you play the best when you play clear and free in the mind,” he said.

“For Mac, it’s just to play football and get his starting points right, get his physicality right and then make the right decision from there.

“Mac knows that we want him to take the ground ball and he knows that we want him to spoil out of bounds and myself included, we don’t always make the right decisions.

“I love playing alongside him … I think sometimes you forget how young he is and he’s going to be an absolute star of the future but he’s still developing.

“It was only two weeks ago he kept Jeremy Cameron goalless, so let’s not forget about all the beautiful things he does.”

Suns' Sam Collins wins a free kick attempting to mark from Giants Jesse Hogan and teammate Mac Andrew during the AFL Round 15 match between the GWS Giants and Gold Coast Suns at Engie Stadium on June 22, 2025. Photo by Phil Hillyard

The Suns were their own worst enemy in the final quarter, with several errors and turnovers leading to Giants goals and Collins has vowed to step up as a leader to prevent the mistakes from multiplying as they did on Sunday.

“What we saw in the review was that if we make one poor decision, we usually fix it by the second but it was the kind of quarter where one turned into two, turned into three, turned into a goal,” he said.

“Our job as a leadership group and to be honest as a whole team is to pick up on the trends of the game.

“I think the difficult thing is when it’s kind of a number of different types of moments is picking up what the trend is and unfortunately there wasn’t really a trend.

“So I think it’s getting particularly the backline that I’m in charge of, just keeping them really level and making sure we come back to our strengths and our core actions.”

Originally published as Sam Collins backs Gold Coast Suns defender Mac Andrew to bounce back from mistakes