Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick has conceded “unfair” trade speculation surrounding Bailey Humphrey has impacted his form, revealing the young gun “feels like he’s letting the side down.”

A year after he sought a move back to Victoria, Humphrey has again been linked to trade talk but struggled on the field.

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The 21-year old has dropped from the No. 64 rated player in 2025 to No. 263 currently — the third-biggest drop off of any player in 2026.

Speaking on Fox Footy’s AFL 360 on Monday night, Hardwick admitted the outside noise has gotten to Humphrey.

“If I’m being honest, yes. Yes,” the three-time premiership coach said when asked if Humphrey’s form is affected by being at the centre of trade talk.

“The pressure on this young lad — and I love this kid, I just spoke to him before — he’s such an emotional kid and emotional person. And he genuinely feels like he’s letting the side down.

“But when this kid walks out on the field, I feel better about life, our fans feel better about life. I feel it’s an unfair thing.

“He had some issues last year that he was looking to go home to sort out some personal business.

“But now at this stage of his tenure at the moment, he’s happy and just wants to play good football. But we’re consistently linking his name and social media and these things.

“We talk about the players’ health and wellbeing. We sit there and give it lip service, to be completely honest. We sort of put these players’ names in lights.

“And some of it is bought on by self, I understand that, but I think we can do a hell of a lot better than what we’re doing and the way we’re doing it at the moment.”

Hawthorn and Melbourne are circling Humphrey, who’s contracted at the Suns until 2028.

After bursts through the midfield in recent years, the former No. 6 pick has predominately played forward this season, with the addition of Christian Petracca only bolstering the depth of Gold Coast’s on-ball unit.

Hardwick took responsibility for Humphrey’s dwinling play and says he’ll continue to support the youngster.

“I just keep talking to him. We have a really great relationship, we talk about a lot of things,” the Suns coach added.

“My greatest thing with Bailey is just park your thought process, let’s just get your footy up and talking. He completely agrees.

“He’s such a wonderful kid trying to do his very best to help Gold Coast win and it’s just not working for him at the moment.

“The fact of the matter is it’s my job to help him through that. Hand on heart, he’ll be getting there and I’m sure he’ll turn the corner pretty soon.

“Because he’s a wonderful player and even better young man.”

Meanwhile, Hardwick acknowledged his criticism of the umpires “overstepped the mark” after he was given a warning of sorts via a phone call from AFL football boss Greg Swann.

The AFL put Hardwick on notice, but didn’t issue a financial penalty, after his criticism of the umpires in last Friday night’s loss to Geelong.

Swann personally rang Hardwick on Monday to express disappointment with the Suns coach’s comments, which suggested the umpires were swayed by the “the Roman Coliseum”-like GMHBA Stadium crowd.

Hardwick accepted his remarks went too far.

“(The chat with Swann) was good, ‘Swanny’ is a cracker. You’ve got to love him, that’s why he’s a great football person,” Hardwick said.

“Look, he’s doing his job, and obviously the umpires were disappointed. And I’ve got to be better with that, I understand it.

“But he also understood I’m there to protect my players and try and get the game played or looked at in a certain way.

“But I understood the conversation we had… he made it very, very clear that I overstepped the mark.

“I commend him on the way he goes about it, having the conversation. No need for emails or letters, just a man-on-man conversation.

“So, I really appreciate it and the point was very well made by the great man.”

Hardwick accepted “I’ve never tolerated losing well” in something he had to “get better at”.

“I do wear my heart on my sleeve, I’m a horrible loser, I’m not going to lie,” he said.

“My mother has said that, I spoke to her again tonight. She always says I’ve never tolerated losing well

“I’ve just got to get better at, it’s not something I’m overly great at. We’ve always got tot look for rooms for improvements, and this is one of mine.”

Despite this, Hardwick said the Suns would follow up with the umpires around “clarity within the rules” and decisions “we didn’t feel we were getting back the other way.”

But Hardwick sympathised for umpires’ given the AFL “is the hardest in the world to umpire”.

“It was a humorous thing I was trying to make and it did go too far. I understand from the umpires’ point of view. They’re a great group of guys,” he said.

“I’ve said this a lot, our game is the hardest game in the world to umpire.

“I think they do a pretty good job, like every week sort of thing. It’s like me, every now and then, I have a down day. And every now and then, they’re going to make a wrong decision.

“But god, good luck, it’s the hardest game in the world to umpire.”