Roar Guru
There may be no place like home but life on the road is good again for the Gold Coast Suns after they held out Brisbane Lions 11.10 (76) to 10.11 (71) in Sunday’s AFL derby at the Gabba.
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Final score
Brisbane Lions 10.11.71
Gold Coast Suns 11.10.76
In QClash15, the Brisbane Lions and Gold Coast Suns will go head-to-head on Sunday afternoon. Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match from 4:45pm AEST.
Brisbane and Gold Coast were both demolished by their opposition last week; Brisbane suffering a humiliating 93 point loss to Richmond and the Suns receiving an 80 point hiding by West Coast.
After challenging and almost beating Port Adelaide the week before, a 93-point loss has completely ruined any ‘positive’ talk about the Lions.
Managing just 17 points for an entire game (two goals, five behinds), Brisbane will need to bounce back this week against their Queensland rivals.
After two good wins, the Suns have had two disappointing games in the west against Fremantle and West Coast Eagles at Optus Stadium.
Against the West Coast Eagles there were some good moments for the Suns, but they let the game go in the second and fourth quarters, only scoring one goal in each and allowing the Eagles to eight and six goals, respectively.
The Lions have made four changes for this round five match, omitting Sam Mayes, Rhys Mathieson, Rohan Bewick and Josh Walker after the shocking loss to Richmond last Saturday. Daniel McStay, Ryan Bastinac, Ryan Lester and Jacob Allison have been brought in.
In the Suns’ camp, Matt Rosa and Jesse Lonergan come into the side for the QClash, with Aaron Hall and Kade Kolodjashnij omitted.
The Lions’ are still searching for their first win of the season, unable to string together a four quarter performance but coming close in the first three rounds.
Meanwhile, the Suns are sitting with two wins and then two losses, and keen to put themselves back on the winner’s board this week.
Brisbane have won the last two QClashs, with the Suns’ most recent win coming in July 2016.
Prediction
Both teams will be looking to bounce back after the disappointment of last week.
It will be a close and most likely low-scoring encounter, but despite the betting odds telling me otherwise, the Gold Coast Suns should run out with the win here.
Gold Coast by 19.
Join The Roar for live scores and a blog of the match, starting from 4:45pm AEST.