Gold Coast players ponder another thrashing at the hands of Adelaide last Saturday night. Photo: GETTY IMAGES
If you’re one of the very small band of football fans who barrack for, or even have the faintest interest in the fortunes of Gold Coast, this season must be feeling increasingly like a horror movie on a loop.
It’s one which opens with some brief moments of sunny optimism, quickly turning into a reality check with ominous overtones. Then comes the slow, protracted scenes of torture, which by the finish have become so inevitable they no longer even shock.
If you were a film connoisseur, right now you’d be begging the director to wrap up “Gold Coast: 2019” post haste. There’s no dramatic tension left in this storyline anymore, just gratuitous blood and gore.
The Suns have done this all before. Last year, in fact, when they won three of their first five games before turning into cannon fodder for the rest of the competition, winning just one of their remaining 17.
This time it was three wins from the first four, the sole loss by a solitary point. The first reality check was again delivered by Adelaide on a road trip, the Crows belting Gold Coast by 73 points in round five, worse than last year’s eight-goal hiding in round six. And on both occasions since then, it’s been a protracted car crash, the current losing streak up to 12.
In fact, in 2019, the bottom might have fallen out of Gold Coast even earlier. This time last season, the Suns were getting beaten by around the seven-goal mark, and in round 18 even managed to pull off one of the greatest upsets of the modern era against Sydney at the SCG.
This year, they’re coming off consecutive 90-points-plus defeats. On Saturday, they face Carlton, which even a few weeks ago, would have looked a serious prospect of a win. That, though, was before the Blues installed David Teague as caretaker coach, won three out of five games and lost the other two both by a kick.
So again, you can write your own ticket on a Gold Coast victory as Carlton prepares to engrave the Suns’ name on another wooden spoon.
Where does the whole club go from there? Nine seasons in, that will be a sixth occasion in which the Suns have finished in the bottom three on the ladder. Their best result was 12th with 10 wins in 2014, after which, perversely, they sacked coach Guy McKenna.
Since then, Gold Coast has routinely haemorrhaged most of its best players, Jaeger O’Meara, Dion Prestia, and over the last two off-seasons, three captains in Gary Ablett, Steven May and Tom Lynch, senior players desperate to depart and the Suns remaining by some margin the youngest and least experienced list in the competition.
There was some minor joy last week when the Suns announced the re-signing of draftee Izak Rankine, still to make his senior debut. That, though, came at the same time Gold Coast chairman Tony Cochrane was also petitioning the AFL for draft assistance.
And as Gold Coast coach Stuart Dew himself noted, that is hardly in itself the answer. And only one of the issues, which remain far bigger-picture than retaining this player or that.
Why would any of those senior players, even with generous salary packages, choose to stay at a club whose on-field success seems light years away, and which continually battles to build and sustain even a football culture in a place renowned for its lack-lustre support of a whole catalogue of tried and failed sporting franchises?
Perhaps even more significant than the abject nature of Saturday night’s 95-point spanking at the hands of the Crows was the crowd of just 8741 at Metricon Stadium, the second-lowest ever among the 88 home games Gold Coast have now played at the refurbished Carrara venue.
True football people on the Gold Coast are hardy folk. But they’ve put up with a lot of dross over the past eight years. Most have relocated from states where they already supported AFL teams. Perhaps they’re finally tiring of also throwing their weight behind a cause which never seems to make any progress.
The other element to this story, of course, is the potential expansion markets the AFL chose to ignore a decade or so ago, the rationale that Tasmania, or the Northern Territory, didn’t have the economic or population resources to sustain an AFL club.
It was a questionable argument then, and seems even more so now. Because what those areas do have in spades are entrenched football cultures and histories better prepared to survive tough times on the field.
Enough Tasmanians turn out eight times a season for Hawthorn’s home games in Launceston and North Melbourne’s in Hobart. As if all of them and a lot more besides wouldn’t be inclined to get behind a truly local team representing a state which has produced some of the greatest footballers the game has seen.
It’s too early yet to pronounce Greater Western Sydney a success or failure not just in establishing but maintaining on-going viability in terms of support and growth. Which leaves Sydney as still the only AFL club to have put down stumps in a non-traditional football market and make a go of it.
The Swans, though, were already a football club, the transplanted version of a foundation VFL club in South Melbourne. They at least headed to Australia’s biggest city. And even then, it was a good 15 years, and several crises which put the Swans at the brink of extinction, before their survival was assured.
Gold Coast has none of those saving graces. And often, it seems, not even a fraction of the “care factor” the AFL had for ensuring the Sydney gambit worked.
People are quick to label under-performing teams and clubs “the worst since Fitzroy in its death throes”. But Gold Coast’s current state really is the most hapless we’ve seen since that period in the mid-1990s.
And fixing things up might take so much more than a few priority draft picks that the scale of assistance needed would required the pillaging of rival clubs. Good luck with that, AFL Commission.
The Suns right now are a football “splatter flick” almost worthy of an “R” rating. And it really is hard to see how this one will be redeemed by any sort of happy ending.
*This article first appeared at SPORTING NEWS.
Rohan..as much as I love your work (and your taste in music) I think this is a lazy article and a typical Melbourne article and I’ll explain why.
Firstly, let’s talk entrenched football culture. The Gold Coast has a booming and well entrenched AFL culture which is outgrowing all the other codes in Sth East Queensland. AFL could actually now be the most participated in sport in the Sth East Qld/NNSW region. We’re at a stage where there is a major shortage of grounds and some junior clubs are fielding 3 divisions in age groups.
I’ll use Broadbeach as an example as I’ve been heavily involved(committee/coaching) with the Junior club for a number of years. Broadbeach has multiple teams in all age groups from u8 through to u16 boys, as well as 4 female teams, being u11,13,15 & 17. All up they have 484 registered kids. Broadbeach is one of the larger clubs, but keep in mind that there are 13 junior clubs on the Gold Coast and this is not including clubs that fall into the Sth East Qld area, which are located closer to the GC than Brisbane, such as Beenleigh or the Northern Rivers clubs such as Lismore, Ballina, Byron, Pottsville, Murwillumbah which are in the Suns zone. You can’t argue that this is a massive amount of kids playing AFL in such a small area and it’s season on season growth.
Now when we move into the senior divisions, there are now 12 senior clubs on the Gold Coast. There’s Southport in the NEAFL, with a long and distinguished football history. 4 Clubs in the QAFL all with 50+ years history and 3 of these teams are currently in the top 4 which tends to be the way each year. Gold Coast football is stronger than Brisbane football in both Seniors and Juniors. There is one team in QFA Div 1 and 4 teams in QFA Div 2 and the remainder in other leagues. All these teams have reserves and he majority also have colts.
On top of this, there are 5 senior womens football team on the GC. Bond Uni is currently sitting on top of the QAFLW ladder in both Seniors and Development teams. This is only their 2nd year in the top comp and their talent depth is enormous.
Also add onto this a seriously active Old boys/ Masters competition that continually produces teams that win National championships.
All schools now have AFL teams and a number of schools have AFL excellence programs. The school competition is not at the level in Victoria but it is developing and unfortunately Rugby League is dominant in the public schools and RaRa is still the preferred option for the Silver Spoons.
This comment that I continue to hear from the monkeys in Melbourne that there is no culture and that the GC is a wasteland for sporting teams is just rubbish and is made without research. I’ll bet you you a Mark of Cain ticket that Tasmania has no where near the participation levels that the Sth East Qld market is achieving. They can’t even get their local competition to-gether. Sure they’ll turn up to watch the Hawks and the Roos play. That’s 4 games in each town in the middle of winter, with teams that have been performing relatively well. What else do you do in Lonie on a shitty winters day? Go swimming down the Gorge?? As for your comment about the NT..where the hell did that idea come from? Utter nonsense!! I don’t think i need to go into detail about population growth rates between Tassie and Sth East Qld.
Let’s talk about the crowd on Saturday night. This is an example of crap scheduling by the AFL. I’m not sure what’s going on here but maybe you can talk to some of your mates down at HQ. It’s as though the Suns and the AFL don’t talk to each other. If that game was scheduled in any of the afternoon time slots, an extra 4-5k would’ve been in attendance. It was school holidays up here on the weekend and there was no junior football on. The families would’ve been there on mass. The 7.25 slot in the middle winter is not a good slot for the GC as a big chunk of the market is families. A Saturday night game means that most punters will arrive home at 10.30pm at the earliest and believe it or not, Metricon is a fricken cold venue in Winter. It’s located on the river in Swampland and the stadium is effectively open. It’s a tough gig sitting through a night time winters game, particularly when you know that the chances of a touch up are pretty high.
The AFL and the Suns often schedule games in bad time slots which clash with local football. One of the things that they could do to improve the Suns lot is to work on Suns Scheduling and Junior scheduling. The families turn up when they can, but to often they’re unable to attend due to fixturing clashes. It’ll never be perfect but it could be a lot better.
Success will also bring crowds. I’m a foundation member whose probably been to 85% of all home games. I’ve the seen the good crowds and I remember the crowds well from when we were doing ok. The crowds at the start of the season were quite strong and believe it or not, when we’re going ok, the Suns is an afternoon that many of my non afl friends are keen to experience. The market is there, but you have to produce a good product!!
This claim that it’s a sporting wasteland is nonsense as well. The problem has been that all the clubs that have turned up have been badly run and underfunded. Whether that’s in Rugby, Soccer, Basketball or AFL. Not one club has been anywhere near successful. The Gold Coast will support. It’s a sports lovers paradise. They’re just screaming for a well run team that actually stands for something. A team that turn ups each week and goes toe to toe with the best teams in the nation. Whether that be AFL or NRL, they just want a team that has a crack!! If Nth Queensland can do it, there’s zero reason why the Suns can’t do it!!
Now that we’ve got the Culture dribble out of the way, let’s talk about the Suns and their list.
At the present moment you could argue that the Suns have one of the worst injury lists in the AFL. Have a look at this list:
– Bowes
-Ainsworth
-Collins
-Thompson
-Martin
-Holman
-Young
-Rankine
-Murdoch
-AhChee
-Crossley
-Powell
-Wigg
-Schoenfeld
From this list you have 11 players that are probably in the starting line up on a perfect day. There’s 6 x 1st round draft picks in that bunch alone and some of their most important players. Having said that, it’s still no excuse for the rubbish they’ve put up over the last 2 weeks but little has been said about the injury list from the Melbourne press. I see no mention of it in your article.
Last years clean out was massive in respect to experience and key position players. Any one with any knowledge of football knew that the Suns were running on thin ice this year. Bad luck with injuries was going to hurt and hurt badly and this is where we find ourselves. Overall, they team has performed better this year than the crap they dished up last year and the signs were promising. The list still has to be tidied up and I have no doubt another big clean out will occur this year. They’ll get another bunch of high draft picks and hopefully they can pick some good ones. They need to get a couple of A grade 23 – 25 yr old players in. They need a Lachie Neale, a player that can consistently win 30 plus possessions as well as a key forward who can help out 2mt Peter and King. If you run through their list they have a number of high end talent which are coming along fine and will all play 200 plus games and hopefully with the Suns. They’ve re-signed their main pieces, except Lukosius and King, but I expect (hope) they’ll commit shortly. So on that side they’re doing well.
They need more depth and this is maybe where the AFL can help them out a bit. The VFL picks were a good thing last year and I reckon a few more of these wouldn’t hurt. The NEAFL needs to be looked at. The variances are just to great on a weekly basis. How do you develop when you’re not really sure who you’re playing alongside on a weekly basis. Half the time your team mates have no idea what the game plan is as they’ve come up from the Academy.
Free Agency has not helped the Suns. It just doesn’t make sense to me how strong teams can end up with Free agents and it costs them absolutely nothing! This is has impacted the Suns massively. Would all of those players have left if they weren’t guaranteed ending up at the teams they chose? Would those teams have pursued them if they had to pay a market price for the right to do so? How do you climb off the bottom if your A grade talent is being cherry picked by the power teams?
Draft contracts need to be longer. At least 3 years minimum. This will help with development and will also stop the situation where the club has to pay crazy money to kids who haven’t proven themselves to get them to extend. If those kids don’t cut it, then you’re still possibly left with a big chunk of the bill and nothing in return. You’re just speculating!
The club was set up badly from the start and recruited poorly. That is the past and that is squarely on the shoulders of the AFL. The current administration under Mark Evans and the coaching group under Dewie is on the right track. We all know these things take time but the AFL should step in and help fast track things as they run the risk of the current batch of top draft picks not hanging around as the offers keep getting thrown at them. It’s a major strategic investment for the AFL and it’s an important for all other teams that the Suns do well. I’m sure the Broadcast rights would be substantially less if the Suns were based in Hobart or Launceston. The AFL needs to make their substantial investment pay and they need to do it quickly, because no one interested in turning up to Metricon at 7.30 on a freezing winters night to see the Suns get pumped by 95 points!!
The only commentator that has made any sense in the last few days has been Browny. He understands the Gold Coast better than the other muppets with microphones. He’s at least come out with some solutions. Every one bangs on about the obvious but no one has taken a moment to stop and consider the actual situation.
Anyways, that’s enough of my time. I love your work but please don’t put out articles like that again. You’re better than that!
Cheers
Wouldn’t usually publish a comment this long, but appreciate the time and effort put into your response. I hope the scenario you foreshadow is what happens. I’d just say this. One, I’m not convinced outstanding junior participation rates necessarily translate to active support for the local club. And two, I think you underestimate the power of a historic football culture and in a heritage football state to build support quickly.
And yet, Rohan, I think today’s AFL is too pig headed and slow moving to admit failure and will keep propping them up for years. The Gold Coast horror movie franchise will romp past Friday the 13th’s 12 films. We’ll be still watching Gold Coast horror movies in a decade’s time.
The only thing for the AFL to do now is to actually shift the team to Tasmania. It has been a monumental waste of time, money and young footballers careers, and a few of Gary Ablett Jr.’s best years too. And what does it add to the competition? I’m sure the AFL and Gold Coast think it presents tourism opportunities for AFL teams, but I’d be certain that there’s plenty of AFL fans like me who have literally no desire whatsoever to go to the Gold Coast ever. And even if one did, how often might an AFL fan want to? To watch them? At that stadium?
The problem isn’t just the club culture – it’s the total lack of surrounding culture. Where Sydney or Brisbane has plenty of other things to offer that are worth seeing, rightly or wrongly I kind of think of the Goldie as a trashy, philistines wonderland.
Best thing for it is for the AFL to pull a ripcord. And shift them to Tassie.