Steven May defends Melbourne move, backs Gold Coast to improve

We'll see who is right I suppose.

The club found itself in that position largely due to attacks and indifference from the AFL. You wouldn't know this as you've never read my articles on the Lions - I still remember well your admission of intellectual incapacity on my MCG piece. We have plenty to show for our time in the AFL and will have plenty more to show in the future. I have learned in many ways to enjoy the adversity our club has faced as it will just make the eventual success more rewarding. Your issue is fundamentally one caused by your own outlook on life, and such a personalised, emotional argument based entirely on negatively held views without evidence can be easily disregarded.

If you collect a hat trick of premierships, but 15 years later are a shell of a club with a hollowed out supporter base, begging from the AFL (haven't made a profit since 2007), uncompetitive for a decade, then you have nothing to show for it. The three premierships may as well not have happened. Did virtually nothing to help the club long term.

What about premierships? Aren't they an objective measure? Brisbane in only a few decades still has 3x the claim than St Kilda in 120 years to still be a part of this comp. Why not attack some of these failed sides from Melbourne, the welfare states of our competition. Freo has nothing to show for it either. And they don't even have past success to hang their hat on

Anon: "It’s not an AFL culture and never will be" - this applies to every country in the world yet they still throw money away playing games in Shanghai and previously Wellington. As Paul says the grassroots up here is going from strength to strength and I probably attended more games at Broadbeach Cats and Southport Sharks this year than I have previously. The public are not going to simply accept the AFL offering with the deplorable performances of the past 5-6 years, particularly when the AFL itself could not care less about what the Suns and Lions do up here. Add to that the Victorian media constantly linking and talking up any talented kid with VIC on his birth certificate moving "back home" and you can see just some of the issues facing the elite level of the game up here.

I'll stick to objective measures such as onfield success, crowd numbers, membership numbers, revenue. For all that success 15 years ago, nothing to show for it.

Brisbane have nothing for it in terms of support and financial independence. They are practically insolvent, probably have 10k Brisbane supporters at games despite the greatest success since Collingwood in the 1920's. If you can't make a club work after that kind of success you never will.

Oh dear, anon! How can 3 Premierships be "nothing to show"? You criticize Freo for 5 consecutive finals appearances under Ross because of 'no flags' and despite Brissie's 3 flags you call it 'nothing'. You seem to lose track of what you are saying between the first letter you type on a post and the last letter.

You don't live in QLD. You know it, I know it - so how can you be so confidentin your views. The Lions have plenty to show for it. 3 flags, and granted, crowds haven't been flash but don't think for a moment the support has disappeared altogether. QLD fans are just fairweather as all hell, particularly with elite sport. What we have seen in QLD is a huge uptake in participation and involvement at grassroots level - local AFL clubs in brisbane are very strong, plenty of depth. You, as always, with your superficial, fishbowl view of things think that AFL and the on-field fortunes of the Lions and the Suns is all she wrote and all that's relevant in QLD where AFL is concerned. It most assuredly is not. I would take the word of SportsFanGC, with his years and years of sensible rational commentary on sport in QLD over any of the tired old copy/paste schtick that is your stock in trade. AFL has already made plenty of inroads into QLD. yes, it is not a majority sport, but it has an entrenched foothold now, one that has shown it can deliver a trickle of quality youngsters into the AFL system, and I fully believe this will increase over time, if nothing else, simply because the $ on offer from AFL will always continue to exceed what other sports can offer the small number of immensely talented youths weighing up their potential options as a professional sportsman. Stick to bagging out Freo. At least they're your local side.

I'm kind of relieved we missed May now. Allowed us to get Beams and if we can get Moore's body right he can become a mobile CHB. Dunn,Goldsack, Scharenberg can all play back too...

The VFL/AFL has had a presence in QLD for three decades, the Lions enjoyed the greatest success since Collingwood in the 1920's, there's nothing to show for it. Barely on the radar in Brisbane, it's like it doesn't exist on the Gold Coast. At some point you have to realise you're not going to make inroads into QLD. It's not an AFL culture and never will be.

Keep peddling those lines if it makes you feel good Anon. The team has been around for 7 completed seasons - hardly enough time to make a judgement call. The AFL need to take all the blame for the start up of the Club, which was as amateurish as anything ever seen in Australian professional sport. If we are talking about teams with no fans that offer nothing to the game then St. Kilda, North Melbourne and Western Bulldogs are all in with a shout as well as GWS. What the AFL is failing to realise is that they are not as big as they think they are and while they have wasted plenty of money propping up pointless Victorian teams and playing games in Wellington in the past and Shanghai currently, they are neglecting two of the three most populous states in the only country where the game is played professionally.

Suns are a plastic team with no culture, no fans, I think 9 seasons and nothing to show for it. Demetriou's vanity project will be regarded as one of Australia's biggest corporate disasters when all is said and done in 10 years time. By then it will be $300-400 million down the drain with zilch to show for it. Money simply wasted.

maybe he needs to flop it out in miami on the post-season footy trip. although I doubt he's as proud of his body as Nick was

He seems to be following the career trajectory of Trent McKenzie based on what I have seen, which is admittedly not much. Not sure the penny will drop for him while he's at the Coast, but will remain to be seen I guess. With no Lynch or May I expect him to get a lot of opportunities next year, up to him to grab them

Yep - and they need Peter Wright to step up big time. They could do worse than show him extensive footage of Nick Riewoldt and what it takes to be an elite tall forward in the modern game.

jack martin, alex secton, brayden fiorini, ben ainsworth, touk miller, lachie weller, brad scheer, jack bowes, charlie ballard, brayden crossley, will brodie - that is the genesis of the next generation of suns, keep all those players and they may go somewhere in the future

You cannot begrudge Steven May making the move to Melbourne. Everything is waiting there for him with a traditional Club on the rise, MCG Home Ground, Blockbuster games (e.g. Friday night, Public Holiday, Finals etc.), crowds, members and even more importantly off-field recognition and earning capacity. None of the above is available to any Gold Coast Suns footballer (or Brisbane Lions footballer) and probably won’t be for a significant amount of time which would be well and truly once his career is over. The elite level of the game here is so far behind the NRL it’s not funny and it will only get bigger as the Broncos and Titans will both be expected to make finals in 2019. This draft is the most important in the Suns history considering the talent that has left the Club in recent seasons. I would be loathe for them to consider swapping any of those picks (essentially tell the SA Clubs to get stuffed) and just pick the kids they want to pick. How they hang on to them is the million dollar question because all the big powerful Clubs from Melbourne, Adelaide and Perth will simply put out the feelers as soon as season 2019 is over. Evans, Cameron and Dew need to get everyone on the same page now that the want-a-aways have left the building. They need everyone one to be aware that it will be the toughest 2-4 year period of their careers coming up (likely 2-3 wooden spoons in a row). On a side note Aaron Hall leaving is no issue with me – flighty footballer at best that doesn’t run two ways and can’t tackle or kick accurately for goal. Not sure why he is getting talked up as some sort of elite talent based on about half a dozen good games in his career. Kade Kolodjashnij looked like an elite talent however the concussion/neck issues made his past two years negligible and the Suns already have more than enough slightly built wingers/half back flankers that I can’t see them feeling his loss.

Can't complain - he doesn't have to stay there, and he's right - if a player is at a club all year and everyone knows or thinks he's going it's a huge distraction. Gibbs at Carlton two years running, Lynch at the Suns - like Beams at the Lions, easier to just bite the bullet and shift them. He wants to win games of footy. Can't blame him, I remember Daniel Merrett saying when he retired how draining it was to be having big bags kicked against you most weeks and he'd had a gutful of it. Suns won't improve while one player keeps developing head and shoulders above those around him each year, as every year that player will just be prised out by another more successful club (read, any of the other 17). They need a bunch coming through all at once. Hopefully some of these mature age recruits they bring in are keen as mustard and just have a red hot crack - far better to have players coming in who are just ecstatic to be playing AFL full stop regardless, as opposed to players who feel they'd look better playing in another team's guernsey.