Gold Coast Suns star Mac Andrew responds to David King’s criticism

Gold Coast Suns star Mac Andrew has responded to David King after the Fox Footy panellist said the Suns defender needed to “grow up”. Details inside

Gold Coast Suns AFL star Mac Andrew remains unfazed by calls from dual premiership player David King to “grow up”.

The Fox Footy analyst made the claims in the aftermath of Gold Coast’s win over Essendon where he highlighted a series of errors made by the young Sun.

“He’s very casual, the big man and it’s become a problem,” King said on Fox Footy’s First Crack.

“We saw it a couple of weeks ago and I think it cost them the game, some of his off the ground stuff and just the refusal or the ability to be able to win a contest and stand up behind the ball.”

It is all white noise for Andrew who is just focusing on what he can do rather than letting any criticism impact his performances.

“I don’t really listen to it, I guess their job is to critique and my job’s to play footy so I’m just going to go out there and keep doing what I do and play the way I play,” he said.

“If he wants to criticise it, he can but I don’t really pay attention to it or feed into it too much.

“My job’s to go out there and play footy so that’s what I’ll do.”

Andrew the feedback from Suns coach Damien Hardwick has been simple.

“He just wants me to back myself and have the confidence in my ability so that’s what I’m going to go out there and do,” he said.

“I feel like previous weeks have been maybe a bit too man-focused so just going back to being proactive and backing myself in.

As he prepares for a blockbuster clash against Collingwood on Friday night, Andrew said he intends to go back to trusting his instincts on the field.

“When I play my best footy, it’s when I’m not thinking, I’m just doing,” he said.

“I feel like recently I’ve been thinking a lot out there and I feel like my brain’s been running crazy.

“So just going back to playing off instinct and playing off my gut feel and I feel like that’s when I play my best footy so I’ll go out there and try and do that again.”

Andrew has had the full support from the Suns players and coaching staff who have backed him to return to his scintillating best.

“I have a really good support group within the club and also outside the club,” he said.

“When I am a bit out of form I have people I can go and talk to and they always remind me to go back to the basics and that I’m a good player and I believe I’m a good player as well.”

Originally published as Gold Coast Suns star Mac Andrew responds to David King’s criticism