Gold Coast coach Guy McKenna has denied the expansion club has already reached binding agreements with current AFL players, saying it would not be "in the true ethics of the game".

McKenna said speculation that players such as Geelong's Gary Ablett, Hawthorn's Campbell Brown or Richmond's Trent Cotchin might already have signed for the club's 2011 AFL debut season was "news to me".

"I wouldn't think generally speaking that's right in the true ethics of the game," McKenna said.

"I find that very hard to believe."

McKenna however said the Gold Coast had an obligation to put together the best playing roster possible.

"The rules are there from a salary cap point of view for the uncontracted players coming out in 2010 and it would be derelict of my duty not to go after the best available," he said.

Asked to name the targeted players, he said the candidates were obvious.

"Blind Freddy would know who they are," he said.

While McKenna denied deals had already been done, he said the club had been busy sounding out players.

"Those players are going into a season and in some cases we've had a chat and in some cases we haven't," he said, as the club launched a campaign to attract 10,000 members before next year's debut.

"We'll have another window of opportunity, that comes up at the end of the season when we can do that again.

"It's all about those players going out and playing the best they can and performing.

"If they do that we'd still be interested in them but if they don't, we might go off them, who knows, that's the nature of football."

Sydney coach Paul Roos last week challenged the AFL to come clean and name any player who had signed with the Gold Coast as clubs expressed surprise at the rules loophole.

"If the AFL and the AFL Players' Association are saying it's in the rules and there's nothing wrong with it, just come out and tell us who the players are," Roos said.

"If they are ashamed of it and if you want to hide behind it then obviously they think there's something wrong with it as well."

McKenna said he would feel the same as Roos if he knew a player under his charge was headed to a rival club next season.

"It would be disturbing to say the very least," he said.

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