3 minute read

Gold Coast AFL captain Gary Ablett is under fire for his criticism of Fremantle tagger Ryan Crowley via Twitter.

Gold Coast AFL coach Guy McKenna says captain Gary Ablett's criticism of Fremantle's Ryan Crowley on Twitter isn't ideal, but these things are going to happen in the modern world.

Ablett was watching the Fremantle-Carlton game on TV on Friday night and described Crowley's close-checking tactics on Carlton playmaker Chris Judd as a joke.

"Play the ball, not the man!," Ablett said on his Twitter account.

"That's why Lingy (ex-Geelong skipper Cameron Ling) was such a great player he ran both ways! #givejuddafreekick."

McKenna, speaking after Gold Coast suffered a 34-point loss to North Melbourne at Etihad Stadium on Saturday night, was keen to play the incident down.

The next chapter in the Crowley-Ablett rivalry is set to be played out next Saturday at Gold Coast's Metricon Stadium, if Ablett recovers from a knee injury in time.

"If he plays next week, I know Ross reasonably well but I reckon Ryan Crowley might line up against him," McKenna said.

McKenna said he would have preferred Ablett to tweet about the high quality of the food at the team's hotel in Melbourne this weekend.

"I wasn't expecting that sort of tweet. I've spoken to Gaz about it," McKenna said.

"He understands what he's done. But we're in the modern world.

"Would we prefer it not to happen? Of course we would.

"But we can't keep living in a cocoon all the time. It's technology.

"It's hard to control. It's hard to stop.

"He tweets all the time.

"You don't want to incite a riot or hurt anyone's feelings and I don't think he's quite done that."

Earlier on Saturday, Western Bulldogs president David Smorgon said Ablett was out of line.

"I wouldn't like it, wearing my (president's) hat, and I can assure you that Brendan McCartney, our senior coach, wouldn't like it and I'm sure a lot of the teammates wouldn't like it either," Smorgon told SEN radio.

"It's a difficult issue for clubs because players are individual ... but they also have a responsibility to their employers -- AFL clubs."

Hawthorn great Dermott Brereton also said he felt Brownlow Medallist Ablett had made a mistake by tweeting about Crowley.