DISAPPOINTED Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick will talk to Mac Andrew after another ill-disciplined act from the full-back cost his team a goal in Sunday night's win against West Coast.

Andrew was pinged for holding the ball early in the 59-point victory, but let his frustrations get the better of him, slinging first-gamer Milan Murdock to the ground.

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The resulting 50m penalty took the set shot from a difficult one near the right boundary line to the goalmouth.

It's not the first time Andrew has been guilty of giving away 50m penalties, with Hardwick saying this time was too far.

"I was disappointed with that tonight," Hardwick said.

"He's better than that. I know he's better than that. That frustrated me.

"Generally, there's times where I can handle it, but he overstepped the mark tonight. He knows that.

"I'm there to support him. You look at my (playing) tape, it was just as bad as his. Worse.

"He will eventually grow out of it."

Andrew gave away three free kicks on a frustrating night for the young defender, with opponent Jake Waterman kicking three goals.

Hardwick drew parallels with young Eagle Harley Reid, saying the volatility of their make-up is what makes he and Andrew the players they are.

"But at times, like me, he's got to pull his head in," Hardwick said.

"We'll speak about that. I love the kid. Love the way he plays. He was very good and then he had some moments tonight that were not so good.

"There's players out there that will overstep the mark and he's not going to be perfect, we understand that.

"What we're after is a little bit better than what he did tonight. It's my job to help him through that."

Hardwick said overall he was pleased with the win, although a little disappointed his team couldn't extend a 62-point advantage it had built by half-time.

He called the second half "below average".

"I think our workrate went away from what it should," he said.

"We're an outstanding workrate side but we just felt we didn't get the numbers in the screen that we needed to compared to the opposition.

"In the second half I reckon that fell away."

Hardwick said Bailey Humphrey was likely to return to face Richmond next Saturday after being withdrawn on match eve with hamstring tightness.

West Coast coach Andrew McQualter said there was plenty to learn from his team's first match in 2026, particularly from Gold Coast's opening burst.

"Quite simply the first 45 minutes we weren't able to get any of it on our terms," he said.

"Unfortunately we were blown out of the park by things we knew and planned for and just didn't execute well enough in the first 40 minutes, which was a shame.

"You walk away with a real piece of resilience, that although the game was up against us and could have got really ugly, we were up for the fight and the guys were able to work their way through it.

"There's a lot of things we'll take out of that game we'll be able to use for good evidence going forward."