FORMER NFL player Brandon Kaufman was the Suns’ reserves best player on the weekend, in his NEAFL debut.

Sixteen-year-old academy member Braydon Crossley was also in the votes, as was former academy player and rookie listed Sun Jesse Joyce.

That best players list highlights the Gold Coast’s plight.

So ravaged are they by injures, the AFL side is being propped up by NEAFL players who are not ready for senior footy, and the reserves are being carried by an American football player and teenagers.

The 25-year-old Canadian Kaufman, formerly on the Buffalo Bills NFL roster, was playing his first game for the Suns, after one hitout with QAFL club Labrador’s reserves.

The Suns have 21 players on their injury list from a squad of 45, which includes two ineligible rookies, and will need a few players to pass fitness tests so they can pick a side to take on Adelaide on Saturday.

Fielding players who are not fit or ready has become a weekly event for the Suns.

It puts 18-year-old Gold Coaster Joyce in the frame for a call-up and prompted coach Rodney Eade to apologise in advance for throwing him to the wolves.

“He is not ready for senior footy, but we may have to play him and that’s not fair on the kid,” he said.

BRISBANE have opted against surgery for star midfielder Dayne Beams but have assembled a medical task force, led by renowned surgeon Dr Julian Fellows, to find out what is causing the extreme pain he is experiencing.

Originally published as Injuries leave Suns’ cupboard bare