The board of the Gold Coast Suns has to prove it has strength of character and leadership, and make some hard decisions prior to the mid-season break.
The Suns have no chance of winning sufficient games to make the finals. All positions at the club need to be examined and non-performers sacked or relegated to the B team during the mid-season break.
Three AFL players were sanctioned for drinking, they returned to the team and had little or no impact. Harley Bennell had 23 disposals, however only 11 were effective. It should not be tolerated.
The Suns played like a team of amateurs masquerading as professionals. They have none of the basic skills necessary for the AFL and play to a hopelessly out-of-date game plan.
The four most significant failures in the game were: injuries, tackling, kicking and marking.
Injuries
The medical staff do a good job with injury management, but they do not seem to know why the injuries are so prolific and fix the underlying cause.
The Suns are always behind the play and chasing, so the prevalence of injuries is going to be high. For example in Formula One and cycling the vehicles pursuing have the crashes. However the medical staff, coaches and players do not seem to be working collaboratively to develop a plan to minimise risk of injury.
Why did the medical staff allow Tom Lynch travel to Perth? He had a calf injury then possibly exacerbated the injury by exposing himself to deep vein thrombosis flying for five hours. He was never going to be 100 per cent fit, and the proof was in the late team change.
I object to unfit players being carried, and furthermore to clubs paying huge travel expenses for his attendance. What a waste.
Tackling
The coach stated that the tackling statistics were good. That is a misleading statistic at best. Simply put it means the players are concentrating on their opponents and not the ball.
They are coached by a conditioning coach who has an aptitude for wrestling. Wrestlers focus on their opponent, not the ball. Wrestling training is good, but needs to focus players on the ball and the man. As a team they focus too much on the man and not the ball, that is why they lack the necessary anticipation skills to control the game.
Kicking
The Suns are 18th in 18 teams in kicking efficiency.
On Saturday they kicked four in every 10 balls to the opponent. What a dismal failure of basic skills.
Of Bennell’s 23 disposals, only 12 went to the opponent, and likewise Michael Rischitelli had 26 possessions of which 13 went to the opposition. Are they playing for the team or for statistics? Sadly I think the latter.
Marking
The Suns players seem to think that the ball will he handed to them on a plate. They lack courage and situational awareness. On the weekend of 163 marks the Eagles took 12 contested marks and the Suns 1. What a pathetic result for the Suns.
Supporters, television audiences, and sponsors will not tolerate the continued poor performance and will abandon the club unless hard decisions are made sooner rather than later.
We need a well-led, strong, courageous, winning Suns team.
Martin
Guest
Let's not forget that two weeks earlier the Giants also got smashed by the Eagles, and so I wouldn't be too critical of the Gold Coast. Well at least not too critical over that particular match in Perth.
Mick
Guest
The jury is out on the ousting of Bluey for Eade, smells of the Ratten Malthouse saga all over again. Bluey had them in good shape and going forward, and to my next point - the outfit may look Ablettcentric however it's only been a pre season and 7 rounds with the new head coach. Takes time for them to gel as a unit on the whole - read getting used to the new coaching style. Before junior went down, again it may have looked Ablett + none but there was the likes of Omeara, Rischitelli and Bennell plus others contributing to a descent 2014 season and then high exptectations for 2015. For sure there seems to be a culture issue at the minute which needs to be addressed. As Paul D stated, Eade AND the group as a whole need to bury their collective heads into the footy basic fundamentals & hit the restart button - if they do that we'll discover how fruitful the boards decision to pluck Eade from Collingwood and show Bluey the door & if they improve to the point they got to last season then 2015 may just prove the required bump in the road.
Me Too
Guest
Drafting gaz was a double edged sword. He is so dominant that he has created a slacker effect amongst many team mates - where their fair share of the weight to carry is lessened due to his own effort. When he isn't there they need to step up and carry more than they're used to - unfortunately it appears they aren't mentally or physically ready. From the games I've seen, only Saad is stepping up to the level required - if the better players had half his will the team would be a few games higher up the ladder. As it is confidence is down, application is down. Those two elements go hand in hand, and once one clicks into place, the other will follow.
Epiquin
Roar Guru
It's funny just how much these teams have swapped fortunes since this time last year. The Suns were the unstoppable juggernaut taking over Southern Queensland on their way to their maiden finals berth while the Giants were getting flogged in front of two men and a dog. How times change.
Wilson
Roar Guru
Agree with the bit that they are to dependent on Ablett but have to give Michael Rischitelli credit he has tried to fill the gap but the player group does not seem to life for him like they do for Ablett. GWS never got the Top player like Ablett but got experience in the gap they had and have picked up player with experience to fill those gaps and I think they have that a lot better then the SUNs
bigbaddasa
Guest
It is hard to believe just how relient this team is on Ablett. GWS however, seem to have a much better spread of players where if one or two of their best are out, they can cover them. Not too sure what is going on with the Suns.....but considering they were a shoe in to make finals last year up until GAJ was injured, they have looked worse than their first year since!
Paul D
Roar Guru
Right now, Eade is like the buyer who’s purchased his dream home, and then stepped over the threshold to find it’s riddled with termites, bad wiring and dud plumbing. Leaks and hidden flaws all over the place, shonky foundations and the edifice crumbling around him. People need to accept that the Suns have some real issues amongst the playing group in terms of effort, skill and resolve that have somehow escaped real notice until now – and that’s not something easily rectified, or with mass redundancies from the senior team. For starters, they haven’t really got anyone else to bring in, they’ve barely got enough fit bodies to put 22 + emergencies on the park. I’m sure the Suns are hurting badly this week – that loss against the Eagles was pretty embarrassing. First step is consistency of effort, and rectifying some of the glaring skill deficiencies. I have real doubts over Eade’s relevance to the modern game, but given he has the gig, he needs to focus on his bread and butter which is developing good habits and discipline amongst his players, and then worry about the tactics. The manner in which they are defeated this season is going to be important – they can’t afford too many games where the contest is over by the end of the first quarter, as was the case on Saturday night. Then, at the end of the season, they can address the roster, and trim the non-performers.