The less said about the performances from Gold Coast in 2015 the better. A 16th-placed finish and four wins for the season shows just how bad they were.
Certainly there were many difficult circumstances for the Gold Coast in season 2015. Rodney Eade will be looking for a massive improvement in 2016, both on and off the field.
The return of injured stars Gary Ablett, David Swallow and Jaeger O’Meara among others will certainly help, but one player who Rodney Eade will need to impose himself is key forward Sam Day. With Charlie Dixon making the move to Port Adelaide, the time is now for Sam Day to stand up and create a permanent spot for himself in the Gold Coast forward line, a forward line which is crying out for a key forward that can kick goals.
Injuries and suspensions are a part of football, but not many sides were decimated as much as Gold Coast in 2015. The Suns struggled to field a competitive team at various stages. Sam Day was one of many players who fell under the injury curse missing nine matches during the season, a dislocated elbow the most serious.
Injury often forced players to play out of position for Gold Coast and Sam Day spent a lot of time in the defensive half, more out of necessity than desire with an injury list that continued to grow as the season went on.
Sam Day is highly rated at Gold Coast, not only because the club gave up pick three for him in the 2010 National Draft for him. At 23 years of age and 78 AFL games under his belt, the expectation will be he now becomes a quality level AFL footballer.
Gold Coast need to increase their scoring power, Gold Coast only scored over 100 points three times for the season, with a heavy reliance on Tom Lynch to do the heavy lifting. Along with Day, Gold Coast will be hoping Brandon Matera spends more time on the park as Gold Coast look to spread the goals.
Four goals against Collingwood in season 2014 is the best return for Day in an individual match. Overall Day has kicked 51 goals in 78 matches. Obviously as a utility Day has spent time all over the ground. But the time to settle Day is now, he is capable of kicking 50 goals a season and these goals will be needed if Gold Coast is going to be more competitive in season 2016.
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