Gold Coast Suns chairman John Witheriff famously claimed that his club was one of the cleanest sporting teams when it came to drugs. Those comments have now come back to haunt him.
It’s obvious that the so called extensive investigation into the end of season excessive partying last year wasn’t that extensive.
Administrators were told by the players that there was nothing to see in allegations that Karmichael Hunt had supplied cocaine to teammates.
However, Hunt’s explosive revelations, which were made public last week, has indicated otherwise. The AFL and the Suns, firmly with tails between their legs, need to ramp up their investigations much better this time.
This is a team that the AFL has poured millions into, including signing Hunt as the marquee player, to market the game on one of Australia’s most popular holiday destinations.
This is where the problem seems to lie for the Suns, the Gold Coast has a poor reputation when it comes to housing elite sporting teams.
The population has always had a reputation of being transient, and therefore sporting clubs, whether they be NRL or NBL sides, have never received enough support from the public to install themselves as permanent fixtures.
The NRL has been trying to survive with a franchise since 1988, when the Gold Coast/Tweed Heads Giants were formed.
They had to play matches in Tweed Heads on the NSW border as the Brisbane Broncos, also formed in 1988, had a clause in their contract that there could only be one south east Queensland side in the competition.
They struggled and then changed their name to the Seagulls and were hardly competitive, winning four wooden spoons in a row before reinventing themselves as the Chargers.
They made the finals once in 1997, but that was when the split was on. They were with the NRL and lost in the semi-finals. They then just avoided the wooden spoon in 1998 before folding.
The Gold Coast Titans came in nine seasons later and have also been battling to survive with major financial concerns.
Their NBL teams also changed names frequently and were short lived. The Rollers lasted from 1990-96 and the Blaze had a six-year career.
The Suns won’t suffer the same fate as the AFL will make sure of that, but they are an embarrassment.
They are struggling to be competitive on the field. A lack of depth has been exposed with all their injuries to star players and there are distinct factions in the playing camp.
There’s the religious group and then there’s the social set, who have already committed several indiscretions forcing them to suffer club suspensions.
The Gold Coast environment and a successful elite sporting club have not been compatible bed fellows for years and on current form that’s a long way from changing any time soon.
bryan
Guest
There really does seem to be a curse on Gold Coast teams. The "A" League's Gold Coast United went down the gurgler after a couple of years although there were other reasons more to do with management in their case. Of course,it does happen elsewhere-----------remember the hapless "Western Reds" in Perth?
Bruce
Guest
Tremendous post Unconshus. You are the guru of of the roaru. You might want to post a bit earlier in the evening though old mate - for some reason your grammar and thought processes deteriorate as the nights goes on lol.
Big j
Guest
Jason H I agree to some point it is boring at time but correct me I I'm wrong but I don't believe the afl footy show has ever won a Logie or had their hosts expose themselves twice on live TV inappropriately. And no beau Ryan's nude night does not count
Jason H
Roar Rookie
I have to disagree with you big J, I can't stand the NRL Footy show and find it inherently boring.
big J
Guest
w
big J
Guest
That is no the point, the point is that NRL and AFl are two cmpletely different games and cross over is near impossible, these two games cannot be more different, just as different basketball and baseball and not enough MJ could successfully pull that one off. And I really don;t think that AFL are interested iin a code war, they know that they are beating the NRL hands down at the NRL has a lot of catching up to do. The only thing that the NRL can do better than the AFL is the FOOTY SHOW.
big J
Guest
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Lroy
Guest
Dude, they fined a club for ''NOT tanking"" (throwing games).. how bizarre is that?? Im an Aussie Rules man from child hood, but Monty Python couldnt come up with something weirder than that.
Mister Football
Roar Guru
A 239k rating for Fox is excellent, especially for a twilight game which doesn't feature a Victorian team. It's also worth noting that there's low penetration of Fox into SA. Fox Footy is the highest rating channel on Fox during the footy season, not by a little bit, by a lot. Total Fox Footy viewers coming out of Brisbane are only a fraction short of total viewers coming out of Adelaide.
Mitcher
Guest
You're all as embarrassing as each other with your weak code war rubbish.
josh
Guest
Apparently the Riverina is part of Western Sydney these days...
Perry Bridge
Guest
well we saw clearly that the step from RL to RU is minimal - Folau is a world beater. Given a RU guy like Mike Pyke has been able to reach 100 games and become a premiership ruckman at the Swans - via hard work and persistence - (and I lamented the Folau/Hunt stories overshadowing the real feel good story that was playing out organically and far cheaper!!!) - well, I guess that illustrates that in the Folau case that hardwork and persistence were in limited supply. For Hunt - perhaps it was supply issues of another type? Although to be fair - he just couldn't develop the 'tank' to run out past the 80th minute.
ac
Guest
Some how the AFL will make this go away and the Melbourne Media will find a silver lining.
BigAl
Guest
fyi - Tassie's official colours are Rose, Primrose and Green. The official State Guernsey from the 50s and 60s is a classic !
concerned supporter
Guest
Thank you for your explanation,The Suns players might side step these allegations. Cocaine is a rec drug and K Hunt's judas act seems to allege that the parties were after the season.
conchie
Roar Rookie
the 3 strikes policy is based on rec drugs and is based on out of season testing, not in season or banned performance enhancing drugs
conchie
Roar Rookie
dig deep enough you will find anything you want, everyone who has posted on these boards for any length of time will realise exactly why you dig !!, you must be mates with Bwuce and a few others on this board
concerned supporter
Guest
Excuse my ignorance, I'm from Sydney, Rugby League & Rugby Union. Does AFL still have a" 3 strikes and your out"drug policy?
db swannie
Guest
Yeh if you do a bit of digging some very choice stories turn up . Plenty of hush money paid to keep sexual assault victims quiet. Deals with Vic police to keep afl player bad behaviour kept quiet . Evidence lost in rape investigations . The list goes on . & as has been shown ,anyone who dares speak out is quickly howled down . The drug investigation shows corrupt is a very apt word . Calling in favours from govt officials to do back doors deals is corrupt in my book .
db swannie
Guest
Any one who follows ratings will tell you that the STV ratings for a city outside heartland are about 1/3 of the FTA ratings . So 28 K FTA Approx 10 k STV . No where near 100k . The Suns rate worse .