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AFL top 100: Round 2 - Geelong versus Gold Coast

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Roar Guru
23rd May, 2020
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It’s hard to believe that this Round 2 clash between Geelong, one of the oldest clubs in the competition who have made the finals in nine of the last ten years and Gold Coast, the second youngest club in the competition who have never made the finals, will not result in a comfortable victory to the Cats.

Geelong coach Chris Scott has the best coaching record of any who have coached more than 100 games, having won 141 and drawn two of the 198 games he has guided the Cats through. Head-to-head he has a 100 per cent success rate against Stuart Dew, who has the worst win-loss ratio of any current coach except for the two newbies who both lost their Round 1 matches: Justin Longmuir (Fremantle) and Matthew Nicks (Adelaide).

There is no doubt that greater things were expected of the Suns, particularly when compared to the newest club, Greater Western Sydney. However, while they have been unable to record more than two wins against eight of the league’s clubs and eight clubs are lining up to extend their current record-winning runs against the hapless Suns, things are not as dire as they may seem.

A look through the VFL/AFL history books shows that one of the current-day powerhouse clubs, Hawthorn, took 11 years to get out of the cellar and over 30 years to make the finals for the first time in 1957.

Admitted to the league in 1925, along with North Melbourne and Footscray (now Western Bulldogs), these three teams filled the bottom three positions on the ladder for the first three years of their existence as league clubs and Hawthorn never rose above tenth place until 1936.

During the first ten years, the Hawks (then called the Mayblooms) won an average of less than three games a year, compared with Gold Coast’s average of just under five.

Going back to the start of the league, foundation club St Kilda fared even worse, winning the wooden spoon in the first six years of competition and managing to win only two games in that time.

Gold Coast tried a different way to success than Greater Western Sydney and it didn’t work. Gary Ablett Jr was recruited to the club at a massive expense, and while he proved what a champion he was, he was not able to stem the constant outflow of potential champions seeking fame or fortune or premierships at other clubs.

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Over 20 per cent of the Sun’s top 100 players left for other clubs and to date collectively they have played over 1000 games and kicked over 700 goals for the clubs they have moved to. This includes 11 of the top 20 game-players for the club, and no club can succeed with this rate of attrition.

However, things are improving. This year they have recruited two quality players – Richmond dual-premiership player Brandon Ellis and Adelaide midfielder Hugh Greenwood, who along with debutantes Noah Anderson, Connor Budarick and Matt Rowell played in the opening round against Port Adelaide, and all acquitted themselves well enough to suggest they will help strengthen the club once they become established.

Whilst the Suns suffered a large enough loss against the Power to see them on the bottom of the ladder and Power on the top, the club has always struggled against the South Australian teams never being able to beat Adelaide (the only team with an unblemished record against them) and only managing to beat Port Adelaide once. One game is not enough to judge a season on, and I believe that Gold Coast will still surprise.

Ironically, as far as milestones go, Geelong will celebrate the 250th AFL game of the player they fought desperately to get (Patrick Dangerfield) while elsewhere in the round, West Coast will celebrate the 50th game of the player Geelong fought desperately to keep (Tim Kelly).

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