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The Gold Coast Suns look set for a colossal match with Greater Western Sydney in Round 4, which has the potential to end their season within its first month.
The Suns were widely tipped to make the finals this year and there was solid foundation for such optimism – they have decent key position options, a flotilla of damaging midfielders – led by the AFL’s best player Gary Ablett – and were expected only to get better with age.
Gold Coast also had the softest possible of draws to start their season. Facing the two worst teams in the land, Melbourne and St Kilda, in consecutive weeks was a perfect opportunity for the Suns to build some confidence and momentum after a disappointing end to last season.
Instead, consecutive listless performances have left them in a deep crevasse. They are now staring at a 0-3 start to the season. This weekend they have to travel to Geelong to try to beat the Cats, a task which has proved almost impossible in recent seasons. The last time the Suns played at Simonds Stadium they were trounced by 52 points.
The chances of them coming away from this Sunday’s match with a win are extremely slim. In all likelihood they will enter their match against the Giants in Canberra with a guillotine hovering above their heads.
Lose that clash and they can say goodbye to finals footy in 2015. Granted, sides have recovered from 0-4 starts before to play a part in September. But surely it would be beyond a still developing side which is yet to make its first appearance in finals.
What’s more is their poor form extends far beyond the pair of woeful efforts against cellar dwellers Melbourne and St Kilda. The Suns have now won just four of their past 15 games stretching back to Round 11 last year when Adelaide beat them by 32 points and started their slide from a blossoming line-up to also-rans.
Leading into that game against the Crows, the Suns were in third spot on the ladder with a 7-2 record. It appeared that, in their fourth season in the AFL, Gold Coast were about to have a major influence on the competition for the first time. Finals appeared a certainty and a top-four spot, and the prized double chance it affords, was a distinct possibility.
Gary Ablett was running amok, playing at a level which only a rare few players have reached in the history of the game. But Ablett had long been dominating for the Suns – the reason for their success was the emergence of a battery of youngsters swiftly maturing around him.
Then Ablett got injured and the Suns’ season de-railed. Now he’s playing injured and it looks like their 2015 campaign may also end up in the ditch.
The superstar midfielder has been painful to watch over the first two rounds. Prior to the Round 1 match against the Demons, changing room cameras showed him wincing in pain repeatedly as he went through basic warm-up drills. The winged champion has played two of the least influential games of his career.
Gold Coast have to pray that their skipper returns to something close to full health in the near future, because without him controlling games they are a fine imitation of a rabble.
While the Suns have been stumbling, the Giants have taken advantage of their equally easy draw, registering wins over St Kilda and Melbourne.
GWS will be justifiably confident they can put the kybosh on the Suns’ finals hopes in Round 4. What a start that would be for new Suns coach Rodney Eade.