GOLD Coast leader Sam Collins has encouraged Mac Andrew to play "free in the mind" following some costly errors from the young Suns star late in the loss to Greater Western Sydney on Sunday.

Andrew tried to hack a loose ground ball away in the fourth quarter, leading to a Giants goal, while an attempted spoil ended up in the lap of Jake Stringer for another.

The lanky 21-year-old was not the only Sun to have some missteps, with Collins conceding he was among the players who would like some moments back.

"All of us in the backline, myself included, made some decisions we would have liked again," he said.

"If we make one poor decision, we usually fix it, but it was a quarter where one turned into two turned into three turned into a goal.

"There were some contests I would have liked to have done better, but I'm out there to make decisions and no one intends to make the wrong decisions.

"We're happy with the system and style we played with.

"Our job as players is to deliver more often than not, and we failed to do that."

Now in his fourth season, Andrew's role has been heightened in 2025 following the season-ending knee injury suffered by Charlie Ballard in round one.

He and Collins get the opposition's two most dangerous tall forwards, with Andrew responsible for Coleman medallist Jesse Hogan at the weekend.

"I can speak from experience, you play the best when you play clear and free in the mind," Collins said.

"Mac just has to play football; get his starting points right, get his physicality right and make the decision from there.

"Mac knows we want him to take the ground ball, and he knows we want him to spoil it out of bounds … Mac's a super footballer, I love playing alongside him and one down game from a 20-year-old, I think you're pretty happy with that output.

"Sometimes we forget how young he is.

"It was only two weeks ago he kept Jeremy Cameron goalless, so let's not forget about all the beautiful things he does."