Criticism of Gold Coast Suns, Ablett unwarranted
Roar Pro By Keagan Ryan, 15 Jun 2012 Keagan Ryan is a Roar Pro
- Tagged:
- AFL, Gary Ablett, Gold Coast Suns, GWS Giants, Nathan Bock
Gary Ablett after another Gold Coast Suns loss (Slattery Images)
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Former Brownlow Medallist Gary Ablett and the Gold Coast Suns have faced intense scrutiny in season 2012. Much of this criticism, particularly that which has been pointed at Ablett, is unwarranted.
The Suns are just 33 games old in their brief history but have been scorched by the media following a winless, and at most times uncompetitive, start to the 2012 season.
It seems several factors have contributed to the Gold Coast’s disappointing sophomore year in the AFL.
Namely tactics, structure, on-field leadership and individual form have let them down.
The structure of the Suns has been non-existent this year; their game plan is unrecognisable.
Gold Coast CEO Travis Auld conceded his team’s lack of direction in an interview on The Footy Show.
“We made a decision in year one that the team would play a more free-flowing, man-on-man type of football,” he said.
“And in year two we would have to introduce some structures.”
It seems ridiculous to have let a young team, consisting of mostly first-year players, run around without structure for a whole year.
Where is the discipline and the education for these amateur footballers?
It is no wonder the Suns cannot carry out a game plan; they are used to running around with no rules, regulations or consequences.
Similarly the Suns could have benefited from extra on-field direction from their senior players.
Consider fellow expansion-franchise GWS Giants.
They employed several veteran players to fulfil on-field coaching roles.
Luke Power, Dean Brogan, James McDonald and Chad Cornes have provided wonderful leadership and direction for the young Giants.
These four have essentially controlled and directed proceedings while on the ground.
They ensure players are positioned accordingly for zones, kick-outs and stoppages, accelerating the “apprenticeship” of their first-year teammates.
While Gary Ablett has provided wonderful leadership for the Suns, he is arguably the only experienced player doing so.
The Suns have missed the experience of key defender Nathan Bock, who suffered a horrific injury earlier this year.
He and Ablett are the only Suns players mentoring their inexperienced colleagues.
The final consideration to ponder is the “second-year blues” syndrome, afflicted to players who struggle in their second season in the competition following an impressive debut year.
Former Rising Star winners Daniel Rich and Rhys Palmer have both suffered the second-year blues after setting the competition alight in their rookie years.
At the end of the day, it must be remembered the majority of these players are in just their second year, still adapting to the physical and mental demands of AFL football.
Criticism of these babies of the AFL is unwarranted as the second year is arguably tougher than the first.
Branded with expectations they were never going to meet, the Suns were always destined for failure in 2012.
Bad decisions have marred the Gold Coast Suns during their time in the AFL.
Hopefully these choices do not stunt the development of such talented young footballers.
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- Explore:
- AFL, Gary Ablett, Gold Coast Suns, GWS Giants, Nathan Bock
June 15th 2012 @ 9:38am
Brewski said | June 15th 2012 @ 9:38am | Report comment
IMO there should be no criticism of Ablett, but plenty of criticism for other GC players.
June 15th 2012 @ 10:17am
The Cattery said | June 15th 2012 @ 10:17am | Report comment
No doubt about it.
June 15th 2012 @ 9:02pm
Calcio said | June 15th 2012 @ 9:02pm | Report comment
Bit harsh on Hunt as he has played for 5 minutes compared to a bunch that have been playing all their lives. And not very well at that.
June 16th 2012 @ 11:25am
Brewski said | June 16th 2012 @ 11:25am | Report comment
Wasn’t directed at Hunt.
June 16th 2012 @ 11:35am
Calcio said | June 16th 2012 @ 11:35am | Report comment
Given he is the highest profile player after Ablett in Queensland (where the team is based after all), mentioning “other GC players” would include him as a matter of course unless he was specifically excluded (which he wasn’t).
In fact, Hunt’s profile in Queensland would be bigger than Ablett’s anyway.
June 16th 2012 @ 8:23pm
The Cattery said | June 16th 2012 @ 8:23pm | Report comment
Calcio
we’ve already outed Raf Nadir as someone pretending to be a muslim, are pretending to be Italian?
Do you know any other Italian words apart from calcio?
June 15th 2012 @ 1:29pm
MD said | June 15th 2012 @ 1:29pm | Report comment
What about the Melbourne Demons? Only one win this season – little tactics, structure or on-field leadership and the club has been around for 100 + years. Give the Gold Coast a break.
June 15th 2012 @ 1:44pm
brendan said | June 15th 2012 @ 1:44pm | Report comment
Ablett per se shouldn’t be criticised but the decision to recruit one out and out champion at the salary commensurate with three good players should.Off field i dont think the suns have got it right , inexperienced coaches and the recruitment of many players on good money whose careers are almost over.What happens in the coming seasons when the Suns have to release young talent to maintain list balance whilst still paying Gary Jnr massive coin if the team is still struggling.
June 15th 2012 @ 1:47pm
Redb said | June 15th 2012 @ 1:47pm | Report comment
#sackmckenna
Bad mistake to resign until 2014.
June 16th 2012 @ 5:30am
amazonfan said | June 16th 2012 @ 5:30am | Report comment
Perhaps it was a mistake to resign him at this stage, but sack him? That’s the last thing they should so. It’s reactive, knee-jerking, and considering that many of their problems are not directly related to him (such as recruiting), it’ll just make him a scapegoat.
June 15th 2012 @ 11:48pm
Raf Nadir said | June 15th 2012 @ 11:48pm | Report comment
OK compared to the Giants
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/opinion/where-afl-is-about-to-be-taught-a-football-lesson/story-e6frg6zo-1226337483468
June 16th 2012 @ 4:04pm
Raf Nadir said | June 16th 2012 @ 4:04pm | Report comment
For some reason the article is not opening properly.
Here’s the article if you couldn’t open it:
Where AFL is about to be taught a football lesson
• by: Gavin Atkins
• From:The Australian
• April 25, 201212:00AM
• 13 comments
WHILE Essendon and Collingwood are clashing in the traditional, tribal, Anzac Day game at the MCG today, Sydney remains the real frontline in the battle of the football codes.
At the primary school where my wife teaches in Sydney’s west, there stands a monument to the fact the AFL doesn’t seem to have really thought things through.
Thanks to the cashed-up promoters of the code, Aussie rules goalposts were erected a few years ago on the long sides of the school oval. It was only after they went up that anyone seemed to realise they would impede kids on the running track and, worse, that goal kickers would be forced to retrieve their ball from the highway.
After some initial rumblings, the teachers and parents have decided not to worry about it. Despite marketing efforts that would make a Mormon life insurance salesman blush, the kids have ignored the new additions and are continuing their favoured pursuits of soccer and rugby league at the other ends.
Some in the AFL have deluded themselves about the growing popularity of the game as a players’ sport in Sydney by citing statistics of children taking part in school programs.
But despite the fact the AFL has 17 full-time and 45 part-time staff devoted to promoting the game in western Sydney, the number of juniors signing up to play AFL on the weekend in western Sydney is the real indicator of their progress.
In the age group being targeted by the AFL, the under-12s, the number of teams playing in western Sydney has declined from 24 last year to 22 this year, and there is still no under-11s competition.
Given the resources invested into it, and the hoopla surrounding the establishment of the Greater Western Sydney franchise, this should raise a red flag that something is not going the way they planned.
The warnings have always been there for those who cared to look. No 1 is that following an era of success for the city’s existing side, the Swans, fewer Sydneysiders than ever are watching AFL on television.
No one doubts that the Swans have found a sustainable space for themselves in Sydney, with crowds and membership numbers that any rugby league club would love to have.
But the television ratings for AFL games in Sydney are such that their star player, Adam Goodes, has been known to praise the benefits of living in a city where he is rarely recognised.
Despite the addition of the GWS team to the competition, there has been no net gain to the number of Sydneysiders watching AFL on television, and games continue to be less popular than repeats of Antiques Roadshow and Iron Chef.
Those who do follow AFL in Sydney are most likely to be people from interstate, some are Swans diehards, and some maintain a first allegiance to another team.
However, Swans followers also include a somewhat genteel demographic from Sydney’s wealthier suburbs, people who don’t like the crassness and violence of the rugby codes.
Western Sydney is another story. This is the home of Sydney’s working class, and their winter game of choice is rugby league. The interloping code is known by just about every schoolkid from kindergarten up as “gay FL”, and any AFL players visiting a school in the region to promote the game need to prepare for the possibility of having a seven-year-old ask them inappropriate questions.
Right there is where you have your problem.
The culture of western Sydney is a masculine culture and kids who decide to play or follow Aussie rules football because rugby league is too rough are not the ones that their peers look up to. The brutal reality of the playground in western Sydney is that choosing to play or follow Aussie rules will always be considered a bit suspect.
For the working class of western Sydney, rugby league is not just an aesthetic preference, it is an intrinsic part of their identity. There is no chance that the locals will be impressed by the balletic skills of the new team, even if they eventually excel at them.
Rugby league supporters are generally not quite as demonstrative as Aussie rules supporters. They are less likely to attend games, buy memberships or sink into a depression when their team loses on the weekend. But this should not be confused with a lack of loyalty.
They also have an uncanny ability to identify hubris, and it will not help the GWS that the team has chosen to spend most of its time in a gated community within a drop punt of Sydney’s inner-western cafe strip.
If there is anything that sums up the sheer waste and self-delusion of the GWS experiment, it has been the recruitment of star rugby league player Israel Folau, reportedly for about $1 million a year.
In a bid to gain greater stamina, Israel has deliberately lost his muscle tone, but unfortunately all of the stereotypes league followers have about AFL have been reinforced in the process.
What’s worse is that he appears completely lost on the AFL field, but is nevertheless furiously applauded every time he so much as manages to run through a paper banner without tripping over.
AFL followers will tell you that this is a long-term project and that the GWS team will succeed in five years. What they overlook is that if the experience of the Swans is anything to go by, on-field success will not translate to the long-term popularity of the code in Sydney.
Another precedent is the city’s professional basketball teams. Though the Sydney Kings experienced considerable success on the court, they were forced to fold in 2008, not long after a failed attempt to introduce a western Sydney team.
The problem is that old killer of many small businesses: simply that the AFL doesn’t appear to understand its customers.
The AFL experiment in western Sydney is not going to work now and not in 10 years. The only question is how much damage will be done to the code before anyone is willing to admit to it.
Gavin Atkins is a freelance writer from Sydney.
June 16th 2012 @ 12:28am
John Seabrook said | June 16th 2012 @ 12:28am | Report comment
I propose that the so called ‘Raf Nadir’ be struck from any further contributions to this otherwise constructive forum. He no doubt has an anti Australian Rules axe to grind, but does anyone want to hear it?
June 16th 2012 @ 11:28am
Brewski said | June 16th 2012 @ 11:28am | Report comment
You know if you unscramble Raf Nadir, you get Raidr Fan, which after reading his posts is probably how he would spell it . LOL
June 16th 2012 @ 4:00pm
Raf Nadir said | June 16th 2012 @ 4:00pm | Report comment
I love the open minds and open hearts of AFL fans around the world.
June 16th 2012 @ 8:16pm
The Cattery said | June 16th 2012 @ 8:16pm | Report comment
Weren’t you the bloke coming on here pretending to be a muslim?
June 18th 2012 @ 11:22pm
clipper said | June 18th 2012 @ 11:22pm | Report comment
The funniest post from Raf was
Not much of a crowd.Who were they playing – the Auburn Tigers?’ When he had said in replying to another article that he had never heard of them and doubted their existence!
June 16th 2012 @ 8:17pm
The Cattery said | June 16th 2012 @ 8:17pm | Report comment
He was outed as a troll a bit back – I’m not sure why he has been allowed to continue posting.
June 16th 2012 @ 11:36am
Calcio said | June 16th 2012 @ 11:36am | Report comment
Expect a continued slide in crowds over the next 5 years.
June 16th 2012 @ 11:44am
Brewski said | June 16th 2012 @ 11:44am | Report comment
Thanks Bernard Salt !!.
June 16th 2012 @ 8:18pm
The Cattery said | June 16th 2012 @ 8:18pm | Report comment
Calcio
I”m confident it will outlast GCU!!
June 16th 2012 @ 7:29pm
John Seabrook said | June 16th 2012 @ 7:29pm | Report comment
There is no confusion over a ‘lack of loyalty’! Gavin Atkins is clearly a freelance writer for obvious reasons. He hates Australian football for purely subjective purposes. Why else this tirade? If it’s going to fail so miserably, then why bother writing a long winded sermon about it? ‘Aesthetic? Hubris? Interloping? Are the masculine schooner drinking Westies supposed to understand that language? Im struggling with a couple of ‘em and I’ve had schoolin!
June 16th 2012 @ 8:19pm
The Cattery said | June 16th 2012 @ 8:19pm | Report comment
I now recall this article. A teacher from the West Sydney area wrote a rebuttal soon afterwards.
The success of the AFL just eats at some people, absolutely eats at them.
June 16th 2012 @ 9:03pm
The Cattery said | June 16th 2012 @ 9:03pm | Report comment
Raf Nadir is an old anti-AFL troll who has been reincarnated as a muslim (i.e. he is pretending to be one).
In the last article he wrote, he was very, very quick to pull out the race card – and quickly incorporated some grammatical errors into his posts all of a sudden to put us off the scent.
People like him and calcio bring a site like this into disrepute and I’m not really sure why they are tolerated by the mods.
June 16th 2012 @ 11:31pm
Patrick said | June 16th 2012 @ 11:31pm | Report comment
And your trolling of NRL threads should be tolerated?
June 17th 2012 @ 8:46am
The Cattery said | June 17th 2012 @ 8:46am | Report comment
We should tolerate anyone able to add value and improve the quality of the discussion.
In the case of calcio and Raf Nadir, we’re talking about blokes who do little else except troll AFL sites.
Worse still, we’re talking about two skips pretending to be wogs, and one is making out he’s all muslim – so it’s a bit pathetic all round.
June 17th 2012 @ 10:09pm
Will Travel said | June 17th 2012 @ 10:09pm | Report comment
I’m still failing to see how this is any different to you.
June 17th 2012 @ 10:12pm
The Cattery said | June 17th 2012 @ 10:12pm | Report comment
I’m not a skip pretending to be a wog.
I’m certainly not trying to pass myself off as a muslim.
Yeh, in my eyes, it’s a bit different.
At the end of the day – they’re just a bunch of skips pretending to be passionate about some well known soccer club overseas – most probably from a city they have never visited.
I’m impressed.
June 19th 2012 @ 1:24am
Mike said | June 19th 2012 @ 1:24am | Report comment
Wow, you should be a Detective with deductive skills like that Cattery, Inspector Clouseau perhaps ??
June 16th 2012 @ 10:43pm
John Seabrook said | June 16th 2012 @ 10:43pm | Report comment
He’s a soccer ‘man’. That’s not a wild guess either.
June 17th 2012 @ 8:24pm
Raf Nadir said | June 17th 2012 @ 8:24pm | Report comment
What’s wrong with people who follow “soccer”?
Are we not Australians, even though we have different cultures and religions?
Do we have to follow AFL to be Australian?
June 17th 2012 @ 9:53pm
The Cattery said | June 17th 2012 @ 9:53pm | Report comment
NO problem with soccer – but I’ve got a big problem with skips coming on here pretending to be wogs, made worse in your case in that you’re’ trying to pass yourself off as a muslim.
June 18th 2012 @ 6:51pm
amazonfan said | June 18th 2012 @ 6:51pm | Report comment
Passing oneself off as another race is stupid, but why is it worse that he’s trying to pass himself off as a Muslim?