Thompson told to work

Eade said he won’t play all three and Thompson didn’t warrant selection at this stage.

“Rory is going to have to fight his way in and at this stage he won’t be getting in,” he said.

Gold Coast have never had depth behind May and Thompson but the rise of 14game Leslie has given Eade more power at the selection table and he is now ahead of his 82-game teammate.

Thompson hasn’t played AFL since Round 3 after sufEade fering quad and problems. then 2018 COMMONWEALTH GAMES HOST CITY hamstring

said he was happy with Leslie’s progress and his confidence to back himself despite small errors against Eagle Drew Petrie on Saturday.

“He has done really well, Jack. I thought there were a couple of times I was disappointed,” Eade said.

“As a young player he didn’t let that affect him. He backed himself in the air, he came forward to defend quite a few times so he is really making some good progress.

“I know he is going to be up and down. It is not a lot of games to have under your belt when you are playing on good players and I think he is handling himself extremely well.”

Thompson and draftee Ben Ainsworth, who returned from a badly corked quad, played their allocated 70 per cent of game time as a Gold Coast side with 20 AFL-listed players smashed Southport Sharks 23.18 (156) to 6.3 (39) at Metricon Stadium on Saturday.

Suns NEAFL coach Stephen Daniel said he couldn’t fault a side that’s copped a giant injury toll in recent times.

“The main thing we always talk about it is team-orientated football,” Daniel said.

“It’s very exciting when you have 20-listed and you can implement all the structures that you work on in the preseason.

“We played really well, we moved the ball well which was great so there are a lot of little things to take out of the game.”

Rookie Darcy Macpherson was best on ground again with 35 disposals and three goals.