If I was one of the young 12,180 Gold Coast Suns members looking for a number to put on my back, it’d be number 23. Doubtless, my young mate next to me would have another number and he’d wear it with just as much pride.
We’d both be able to watch our heroes grow and mature into superstars of the competition.
Of course it’s too early to tell, and no doubt the media this week will be full of these puff pieces about the Suns and their ‘courageous and historic start’, but there is a lot that we can take from the Suns inaugural belting at the hands of the Blues.
Above all it’s the signs, and there were many once we get over just how badly the team functioned under the pressure of bigger bodies and experience, displayed by players like Toy, Dixon, Bennel and Swallow.
All showed something in this game, as well as half a dozen other names I could throw out there, to show why they were rated highly enough to have a club’s first decade built on their young shoulders.
So why would I get the number 23? Gold Coast has been built from the backline forward.
Their big name recruits are, with some exceptions, all based in the back half, even Ablett who as a mature midfielder will no doubt be needed more and more at half back to work the ball forward. So logically, one can argue the next piece of the jigsaw is a key forward.
For my money, that man is Charlie Dixon.
Like most of his other young teammates, he played with real enthusiasm despite the score board. He jumped into packs, lead well and, of course, kicked the clubs first goal in competition footy.
With some serious weights sessions (right now he is just too skinny to bare the title of a key forward), and with some better feeding from his midfielders, he could be a real player for the future.
To liken him to a current player, and this is very premature after only one game I will concede, it would be Adelaide’s Kurt Tippett.
Big framed, athletic and not afraid to hit the pack, he could inspire fans of the club just like the big number 4 has at West Lakes.
The result of the first game against Carlton is not the time to judge the team. Everyone knows the real mark of this clubs success will be in its 100th game, when twelve young stars all hit their peak at the same time.
Look out opposition teams, and remember: kids can only grow and rookies can only improve.
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