Despite being battered and bashed by any Carlton player who came anywhere near him last weekend, Gold Coast midfielder Gary Ablett says he's happy with the level of protection he's receiving from his AFL teammates.
Ablett endured a physical night in the 10-point loss to the Blues at Metricon Stadium, picking up 25 disposals but struggling to make his usual impact on the match as Ed Curnow in particular targeted the dual Brownlow Medallist.
The 33-year-old says there's no doubt he pulled up sore from the match, but doesn't believe his Suns' teammates left him exposed.
"I knew early in the game that their focus was to try and limit my impact ... I felt my teammates went out of their way to put a block on for me whenever they could," Ablett said.
"They've obviously got a role to play as well and they need to focus on that.
"They did speak about after the game that if it was to happen again they would put more blocks on, so looking forward to that."
Ablett says the best thing the Suns can do is fight fire with fire, applying the blowtorch to a key member of their opposition.
He says that was something the Suns failed to do against Carlton as Bryce Gibbs, Kade Simpson and Sam Docherty enjoyed plenty of the freedom to steer the visitors to victory.
"I've got no doubt we'll have a target player this week," he said.
"We probably did that earlier in the season and went away from it a little bit, I'm not sure why.
"We will target a player for them, I won't tell you who that will be, but we'll be making sure that they have a tough day."
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