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Live sport on SN this weekendDidn’t see it coming: Inaugural Suns coach reflects on sacking
SEN • July 26th, 2026 1:00 pm
Inaugural Gold Coast coach Guy McKenna last four years in charge of the Suns, from their maiden season in 2011 to the end of the 2012 campaign.
McKenna’s performance as coach increased season-upon-season while in charge, starting with three wins in both 2011 and 2012 before getting eight in 2013 and finally 10 in 2014.
While results were on an upwards trajectory, it was the end to that 2014 campaign which ultimately cost the former West Coast star his job, with the Suns starting 7-2, before reaching 9-6 when Gary Ablett Jr went down with a season-ending shoulder injury.
That 1-6 finish meant the Suns would end the year in 12th, but McKenna thinks there were plenty of reasons behind that fall-off… not just Ablett’s absence.
Even though the end to the year was bad, McKenna admits he didn’t see his axing coming, particularly after being re-signed in May that year.
“Gaz went down with his shoulder, we won that game against Collingwood with no one on the bench in the last quarter,” McKenna told This is Your Journey – thanks to Tobin Brothers.
“Nathan Bock went down, Charlie Dixon, Steven May and Tommy Lynch did too, so we lost our spine in that period where we went 1-6.
“It was a bad end of the season… everyone talks about Gaz, but there were a few other players who missed that end of the year.
“I didn’t see it coming. My only angst about all of that was that I got extended in May of that year. We were 7-2, then 9-6, then we fell in the back end of the season, but there were reasons for that and some pretty valid ones, I think.
“I was sacked in October. But that’s life… there’s two types of coaches, coaches that have been sacked or coaches that are about to be sacked.
“We were starting to play some exciting footy… if we’d made finals that year, the sliding doors moment would have been a very interesting one, that’s for sure.”
After sacking McKenna, it took another decade for the Suns to improve on that 12th placed finish in 2014, finally breaking through for a September appearance and finals win in 2025.
McKenna reflected on his time at Gold Coast, as a player at the Eagles and much more on this week’s episode.
Listen to McKenna' full chat with Sam Edmund below.
