The Gold Coast Suns are on the right track.
Sure, a one-point loss to St Kilda, a team who many have tipped to finish just a few places above the Suns this season, isn’t the most obvious indicator, but it was the first game of the revival of a football club that will reach the top in the near future.
The off-season created a headache for Stuart Dew, that hasn’t been experienced by a coach in AFL history, due to the loss of his two best players Steven May and Tom Lynch, who also happened to be the side’s two captains and bookends after a four-win season should’ve spelt disaster.
Peter Wright of the Suns celebrates a goal with teammate Tom Lynch. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
Add the departure of former high draft picks Kade Kolodjashnij and Jack Scrimshaw, along with Aaron Hall, and it had football fans and media personalities calling for the club to fold or be relocated to Tasmania.
This could be a blessing in disguise. The off-season fire sale ensured Dew has rid the list of players who don’t want to be there and can begin to implement the structure and culture he believes in.
Dew would know what a successful culture looks like, having starred in premierships for Port Adelaide and Hawthorn, before undergoing a comprehensive coaching apprenticeship under John Longmire at the Sydney Swans.
The development of that culture will help foster and retain the likes of Jack Lukosius, Izak Rankine and Ben King, who are among the most talented youngsters to enter the AFL in the last decade.
While the go-home factor is always a potential threat, the Gold Coast isn’t exactly an undesirable place to live. The lack of a winning culture is undoubtedly the largest contributor to the departures in recent years.
In the meantime, the Suns have assembled a team of youngsters interspersed with fringe players recruited from other clubs. Anthony Miles, Jordan Murdoch, Corey Ellis, Jack Hombsch and George Horlin-Smith all crossed over to the Gold Coast in the off-season.
The mature recruits, Miles and Sam Collins, dominated the VFL in 2018, and the Suns will be hoping both players can translate the form to AFL.
The fringe recruitment strategy isn’t a Gold Coast innovation. Melbourne and Brisbane both used it previously.
In the dark-days of 2013, the club recruited David Rodan, Cam Pedersen and Shannon Byrnes, while Daniel Cross, Bernie Vince and Heritier Lumumba joined in later seasons.
These players, while never expected to be superstars, helped raise the standard of the list immediately. They had also played in successful sides at one stage of their career, passing on that experience of a winning culture to the younger players who would inevitably push them out of the starting line-up.
Six seasons on from when Melbourne were branded ‘worse than Fitzroy’, the club is one of the favourites for the Premiership, with the likes of Max Gawn, Christian Salem and Jack Viney having survived the tough years in order to thrive in the latter part of the decade.
Things change quickly in football.
Just three seasons ago, the Brisbane Lions were a basket case with the infamous go-home five leaving the club devoid of high-end young talent.
The introduction of Chris Fagan has completely turned the Brisbane Lions around. James Aish, Josh Schache and Sam Mayes were granted their wish of leaving the club, and now there is a feeling among the football community that the Lions are only a few seasons away from making a serious impact in the finals.
The truth is, this Suns list is no worse than Melbourne in 2013 or Brisbane in 2014. If Dew can harness the potential of Peter Wright, Ben Ainsworth, Jack Bowes, Jack Martin, Callum Ah Chee, Will Brodie, and Lachie Weller, the future is bright.
Peter Wright of the Suns takes a mark (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)
Add the recent draft acquisitions and the consistency of Jarrod Witts, David Swallow, Brayden Fiorini, and Touk Miller, and the Suns are beginning to put together a serious squad.
The entire saga surrounding the Suns extends beyond the on-field performances. Year after year there are calls for the AFL to wind up their northern ‘experiment’ and award a team to the apple isle.
The club continues to bleed money, with the AFL chipping in over $25 million extra to it over the past two seasons, and last year averaged only 13,547 fans to their home matches at Metricon Stadium.
Out of context, this sounds horrific, however, it’s in the AFL’s best interests to keep investing in this club.
The Gold Coast is synonymous for its failed sporting franchises and its lacklustre sporting culture, despite the successful hosting of the 2018 Commonwealth Games. In the last decade, the city has lost its NBL and A-League licenses.
However, in what one would imagine is rugby league stronghold, the Suns averaged a larger crowd than the NRL’s Gold Coast Titans and have more members.
The footballing public must realise Rome wasn’t built in a day.
The Sydney Swans hit rock bottom ten years into their own northern experiment. Today the club has over 50,000 members. Those kids, who first watched the Swans in Sydney, have had children of their own, and combined with a sustained period of success, the club has become a powerhouse.
In a considerably smaller market, the Suns won’t ever reach the level they have. But the AFL knows what they are doing.
Junior participation rates on the Coast continue to go up year after year. In 20 years, there’s every chance the Suns could be bigger than most Melbourne clubs, as the kids that are taking up the sport today introduce their children to Australia’s game.
You don’t have to agree with the AFL on everything, but they’re right on this occasion. The Gold Coast Suns, both on and off the field, are on the right track.
Thom
Guest
Sigh! Good effort, but you are still missing the point. These are all carefully constructed arguments to refute the clueless aspersions of the Melbourne media. The future of the Gold Coast Suns is assured because of key decisions made years ago that have slowly come to fruition over time. The culture building you talk about is rubbish because it has been proven time and again that you cannot create culture. All you can do is eliminate negative influences - bye-bye Tom Lynch and Steven May - and cultivate conditions for culture to organically grow. Let me list these for you: - the Talent Academy discovering players in North Queensland - exhibit A, Jack Bowes - the NEAFL team fostering upcoming talent - the girls Academy teams, which will now feature an AFLW team in 2020 - the stadium deal getting money from local, state and federal governments as well as the AFL was always going to involve sacrifice for the Commonwealth Games - the new Captains were chosen by the players - I can't believe you didn't mention Harbrow and Hanley - both so important - There has been a fitness regime over the off season that has now produced 4 quarter efforts in both games. I could go on. Nice effort, but you haven't come close to the true reasons behind the Suns' resurgence.
roy wayne
Guest
yeah you tell them
roy wayne
Guest
so go gold coast and roos and dockers and gws and syndey and cats and mel and port
roy wayne
Guest
they show stkilda that will be a great or north melboune and fremantle better then west coast
Aligee
Roar Rookie
You are just not old enough but Collingwood has played in Tassie several times, used to take end of season trips there once upon a time. Giants should be good to watch ( seriously) hope North can come up with the goods to make a match of it.
Rowdy
Roar Rookie
The AFL can afford a loss here n there. The NRL would need to go to the bank to get some more money so that they can have a loss.
Cat
Roar Guru
So much salt.
Cat
Roar Guru
Yeah ... no. Typical Symonds fake news his way into another article.
David Mohr
Roar Rookie
That’s great Sam. I’m glad things are going well up there and its fantastic the code is growing. Down here in Tassie clubs are folding – we are struggling a fair bit. Well done on getting the 25 million last year. I must admit I’m jealous. Last year us taxpayers down here paid 7 million down here to watch our 7 games. One million of that was to watch your Suns play the Hawks and guess what? When we only got 9000 it was all our fault and we apparently we don’t love our footy anymore. Unfortunately there aren’t many Suns fans in Tassie which didn’t help. Oh well. I hope you enjoy seeing the Bombers and Collingwood up there, they have never played in Tassie. All the best for the year ahead. I better get online for the Kangas vs Giants tickets at Blundstone Arena before they sell out.
Nick Symonds
Guest
"The Sydney Swans hit rock bottom ten years into their own northern experiment. Today the club has over 50,000 members." - That's the same number of members that the AFL expect a Tasmanian team to have from a population that's just a tenth the size of Sydney.
clipper
Roar Rookie
So funny you mention that - the NRL did the same with the Storm having a home game in Brisbane and double headers counted twice to boost the average - it'll get to the stage that every NRL game will be a double or triple header to keep on top of falling averages!
Nick Symonds
Guest
The Suns and Titans have similar average attendances so if you add them together then they get an average of about 25-30,000 combined. Neither code can abandon the Gold Coast to the other because they'll have a monopoly. There's plenty of interest in sport on the Gold Coast, it's just split between both teams.
clipper
Roar Rookie
Population wise it would be a problem and it's far too humid to play most of the year.
clipper
Roar Rookie
Funny how you forget to mention the Suns also had to take home games to regional towns as well as the ill fated China experiment .
dontknowmuchaboutfootball
Guest
The Freo game was FAR from sold out. Was low to mid 30s from memory. Had to have sub-40k, at any rate. The problem was that the deal was finalized too late for the game to be included in membership packages, so people has to buy a ticket, etc. Lots of people angry to learn that the GC game wasn’t included in their membership and/or too lazy to buy a ticket specifically for that game. Freo ended up losing a pretty big chunk of money on it.
SportsFanGC
Roar Guru
The building blocks are in place off-field - they have a state-of-the-art facility, two training ovals plus access to train on Metricon Stadium, recovery sessions at Burleigh Beach and a beefed-up footy department and administration team. It is on Stewart Dew and his coaching group to make these players want to stay on the Gold Coast long-term like David Swallow has. The Swans of the early 90's are probably the most accurate comparison of a Club having to build from the ground up after a ton of failure on the field. They are now one of the most respected (if not the most respected) Clubs in the game with a solid profile in Sydney. The Suns should be looking to them for inspiration. There are a lot of positives to living and working on the Gold Coast but nothing would be better for the players to start having hope of regularly competing against he best like the Lions have started to gain across the past 2 seasons. One note on the article - the Brisbane Lions "go-home 5" was at the conclusion of the 2013 season so 5 years ago not 3 and the only 2 players they would really be devastated about losing were Elliot Yeo and Sam Docherty.
TomC
Roar Guru
They played a few 'home' games away but their average at Metricon was 13,500. https://afltables.com/afl/crowds/vn_carrara.html
clipper
Roar Rookie
The NRL have had to bail out the titans a few times, so don't know why you're saying they haven't been gifted money like the Suns. You would hope the Titians, in league heartland, would out rate the Suns The common factor is that no teams, so far, have done well on the Gold Coast.
Craigo
Guest
That 13,500 included a sold-out game at the new Perth stadium against Fremantle which the Suns claimed as a home game because of the CommGames.
Craigo
Guest
At the start of every season, I hear the AFL choirboys praising the Suns! It started back in 2011 when they said in 5 years they would win the GF. The NRL Titans outrate the Suns on FTA TV by a country Mile and to say the Suns averaged larger crowds than the Titans and have more members is very misleading. The Titans can't afford to give away free tickets and Memberships. People have to pay to go to the Titans. They're not gifted 100's of millions of dollars like the Sun are. The Sun will get the wooden spoon this year and the AFL choirboys can start getting ready to sing again at the start of next season. To justify all the wasted money.