Liam Patrick of the Suns celebrates a goal during the AFL Round 07 match between the Gold Coast Suns and the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba, Brisbane.
If Brisbane Lions coach Michael Voss was unhappy ahead of Queensland’s historic AFL derby clash, he would have been ropeable by fulltime at the Gabba on Saturday night.
Sure, he was not impressed when reminded of Gold Coast coach Guy McKenna’s remarkable claim that the Suns were put on the tourist strip to clean up the mess left behind by Voss’ former club the Brisbane Bears.
But it would have been nothing compared to the gut-wrenching feeling after the up-start Suns grabbed early bragging rights with an eight-point win over the Lions, 18.16 (124) to 17.14 (116).
Branded a “mercenary” this week by ex-teammate Simon Black for taking up a lucrative Suns contract, Jared Brennan had the last laugh with an inspirational one-goal, 30-disposal effort for the Gold Coast.
Another former Lion Michael Rischitelli had 29 touches as the Suns grabbed their second win in their debut season.
Under-pressure Port Adelaide recruit Nathan Krakouer bounced back from weeks of speculation over his fitness with a match-turning five goals.
Lions veteran Ash McGrath tried hard to create a last-quarter miracle as he finished with six majors.
In a match between the AFL’s 16th and 17th-placed sides, so much more was at stake on Saturday night.
Indeed, Voss must now expect serious questions about his future after his side slumped to an 0-6 record, a season start last endured by the team in their wooden spoon year of 1998.
In contrast, the Suns racked up a few more “firsts” in their short history.
A team that had only won two quarters in their existence before Saturday night led all the way until the final minutes of the last quarter when Todd Banfield’s goal locked up the scores at 104-all.
Yet the Suns held their nerve in front of 25,501 fans.
Brennan was inspirational as the Suns jumped to a 6.3 (39) to 3.2 (20) lead at the first break.
Krakouer threatened to break the game open when he helped the Suns to a 10.8 (68) to 6.5 (41) halftime buffer – the first time the Gold Coast had won consecutive terms.
And the Suns looked to be cruising when they jumped out to a 13.13 (91) to 11.7 (73) lead at the final interval.
But McGrath was almost unstoppable as he peppered the goal square and when Banfield kicked truly, the scores were locked up in the 24th minute of the term.
Krakouer looked to have given the Suns the edge with his fifth goal after a spectacular grab but McGrath’s heroics ensured Gold Coast coach McKenna had to sweat it out until the final siren.
It was a remarkable turnaround for debutants the Suns after their 139-point last round loss to Essendon – including a record 94 points conceded in the first term.
Brennan claimed he wasn’t inspired by pre-match sniping from Black and injured Lions captain Jonathan Brown.
“Not really, I didn’t take much notice outside of football – I got a couple of cheeky texts during the week but that was pretty much it, it didn’t spur me on personally,” he said.
“What spurred me on was getting the win – I thought we were a good chance this week if we executed everything and got off to a good start.
“They (Lions) gave me a bit of niggle at the start but that’s footy.”
Suns coach Guy McKenna tried to make light of his pre-match jibes.
“It was easy for me to pick a fight because I didn’t have to go out there but the guys were terrific,” he said.
“We were under no illusions after the last game against Essendon, and Brisbane came hard, but the boys weathered the storm.”
Voss – a former triple premiership-winning Lions captain – couldn’t quite put into words what the loss meant.
“I couldn’t describe it myself,” he said.
“It’s important to debrief (after) every game, and that’s what we did.
“The guys will no doubt hurt, as I will, absolutely, for the next 48 hours.
“But we’ve got to move on, because we’ve got another job to do, and that’s Essendon next week.”
TomC
Guest
I watched every second, Toa. Certainly looked like Hunt was on McGrath. Who did you think Hunt was playing on?
Toa
Guest
TomC watch the game again you have no idea in what you're on about. Do you always believe what you read and hear?
Dingo
Guest
I think you are drawing a false conclusion that my comment was not tongue in cheek. ;)
Jaceman
Guest
If Hunt was allowed to tackle him NRL style he would have killed him. Hunt is playing nervously and is obviously inexperienced. I think you are drawing a false conclusion that NRL players are not tougher. Backing into a pack to take a mark or running into a brick wall that was once a gorilla require different types of toughness...
Dingo
Guest
There was one telling moment when McGrath and Hunt were deep in the Lions forward line, the ball was coming in high and McGath pushed Hunt aside as if he was 10 stone weakling. I thought rugby league guys were meant to be tougher than Aussie Rules guys. Case rested.
Malibu77
Guest
Should have had some of the $9 that was on offer for the Suns. Brisbane were at $1.08 or something insane like that. Ridiculous odds for a winless team in the two horse race.
Redb
Roar Guru
It's not beyond the Suns to beat Adelaide but its unlikely given home crowd and the Crows got pumped which means they will be up for battle. Nth Melb should be afraid.
JamesP
Guest
It was a FoxSports game in all markets bar QLD 102k Brisbane audience which is OK but not great (considering that the Lions are clearly the worst team in the competition this year).
Toa
Guest
Josh Toy, Seb Tate, Jack Hutchins and Karmichael Hunt leak goals .....THAT has to be said... those who are getting carried away take issue and once again to his renumeration package & pathway. Zac Smith 5yrs experience in Aussie rules compare to those above clearly indicates that hard work pays off....Yes Zac Smith the boy who followed the Broncos & idolised Darren Locker, the kid that play soccer most his young life now performs at an elite level through dedication & hard work. You can argue young Zac development or claim and justify areas of pre-requisite which means nothing when you don't have the mental capacity to learn and understand our game, for Karmichael & Zac both have staying and learning powers and as you mention there's no other way put to it.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
Let's not get carried away. He is well short of the requisite standard in a number of departments, but he still has till next year to rectify some flaws in his game. He might be able to do it. In another post I've just written about Pyke having a decent game, now into his 3rd season - which is about the right time frame for these sorts of blokes. But it has to be said, Hunt currently leaks a lot of goals, there's no other way to put it.
Toa
Guest
The usual suspects are forever burning the Hunt candle. Seriously there should be a call centre to register your real names for the Karmichael Hunt counselling programme. " as someone already said ".... I think your the deer in headlights, karmichael leads his team in spoils its the 1%ers that count. I guess your cross hairs were focus on Hunt & not Josh Toy from last weeks game or for that matter Sebastian Tape performance against Carlton.Young Toy & Tape have more experience than Hunt and only in time will all three become become good players. As Iv'e mention many times k draws negative attention through his renumeration package and pathway, stones have been thrown from all quarters yet he stands tall and holds his own while under intense pressure from opportunist looking to score points from their inexperience's and failures. Some perspective please Hanley with limited AFL numbers cost the loins a crucial goal Daniel Merret with a 100+ games comes up with a rugby union play gets caught holding the ball inside the 50. Two key pts that I believe cost the lions their 4pts. Karmichel had 2 goals kick on him rotated on Retzlaff, Beams and Mc Grath look to me like bluely use k on Mc Grath where others had failed. A condescending Tony Shaw has a dig at karmichael as soon as the match up with Mc Grath happens claiming his inexperience will be found out, shortly after k wins a contest against him Shaw blows the good spoil by wanting to justify his comments by beating karmichael when the ball comes in.....obviously he miss the last 3 minutes of the port game against a reputable and experience AFL player. Now he campaigning to have the Suns release him of his duties....DISGRACEFUL Unless Karmichael wins the best and fairest his profile will be a punching bag for all those that have never taken or given the opportunity to do what he has accomplish.What he's done....participated in 3 different codes at a elite level , last time I check he's the first the achieve such a feat. HATERS...Having Anger Towards Everyone Reaching Success.
GoGWS
Roar Guru
Hunt almost cost them the game....he gave away two silly free kicks by high tackles (or was it three?) - a couple of the high tackles were picked up by the umpires and a couple were not..... Guy McKenna needs to spend some time with Hunt to look at the tapes and work on his tackling to modify his technique... and as someone already said, Hunt's opponents score heavily both this week and in the last few weeks...I think he is overly conscious of running with his man rather than watching the play and his man at the same time.... and when he does get the ball he is a deer in the headlights - he doesn't know what to do....
amazonfan
Roar Guru
I love that GC won. After Simon Black's and Jonathan Brown's silly trash talking, I'm really delighted it blew up in their face. :D I also agree with Cattery. I don't think many of the fears about the Suns are that well funded any more.
amazonfan
Roar Guru
If it did happen, then any umpire who demonstrated deliberate bias should IMO receive one year to multi-year bans, with those who demonstrate systematic bias being banned for life. That said, I very much doubt it was deliberate. As the saying goes (and I may not have it 100% right), if there is a choice between conspiracy and incompetence, choose incompetence.
The_Wookie
Roar Guru
Holding the man, like holding the ball and dropping the ball, appears to have some of the loosest interpretations. More so now than at any point since I started watching football. Watch any game on any given weekend and compare it to 10 years ago and you'll see what i mean.
TomC
Guest
All I remember about Hunt is that he played on McGrath in the second half. McGrath kicked six on him. Thats probably about six more goals than he's kicked in the rest of the season.
TomC
Guest
Looked to me like the Suns ruckmen got a lot of leeway from the umpires. Leuenberger got dragged off it a couple of times, and several times Smith lead into a centre bounce with a knee. I can't recall the Lions getting one free kick from a ruck contest. The Suns got a couple though. Seemed to be quite different standards for holding the man, too, particularly when the tackler carried on after the player had gotten rid of the ball. Suns got a couple from that. The other shocking decision I can remember was Patrick not getting pinged for holding the ball, and then immediately after Black gets penalised for a high tackle that looked a bit dubious. That was in the last couple of minutes when the Suns were up by a point. Pretty big moment in the game. I didn't know the free kick count til today, but I watched the game and I certainly thought the Suns were getting the better of the decisions. Its kind of hard to believe that a young team playing a physical game would only give away 11 free kicks in four quarters. As for the Lions goal, that was actually a correct decision. If it hits the goal umpire, its a goal regardless of whether it was going on to hit the post. I don't think the game was rigged, but the Suns had the better of the umpiring by a long way. The new team might be getting some sympathy decisions from the umpires, I reckon.
The_Wookie
Roar Guru
As we were all taught in junior footy on - play in front, play the ball - you get the frees. The Suns did that, the Lions didnt.
The recalcitrant
Guest
To quote the US president on the Pakistani government's knowledge of old Osama bin Laden, "Their officials were either grossly incompetent or corrupt." It was just convenient to say the umpires were having an off night. All three were dodgy ALL night. I mean 27 free kicks to 11 stinks with bias.
The Cattery
Roar Guru
By the way, bouquets to the Roar team for the video highlights provided at the bottom of this article. It's great being able to view them a couple of times. Having done so, I'm reminded just how remarkable this game was considering we are talking about the two bottom teams in the comp (at the moment they met). Three or four speccies, and three or four near impossible snaps - two of them were near identical, one for each side, deep in the pocket with no gap between the goals, and the ball has gone sailing over the goal umps hat on each occasion - folks - we're talking top shelf right there!! Anyway, putting aside the historic occasion, if you can get such a quality game from the two bottom teams, then the game is travelling ok. It might also mean that we needn't worry too much about whether there is sufficient talent to fill two new teams. Having said that, I note that GWS got a hammering against the Swans reserves yesterday. Anyone know how Issy went? In fact, how did Hunt go in this game? Absolutely no one has mentioned him (which has a good side to it, slowly but surely, the circus might be moving out of town).