Season 2020 - Gold Coast

Gold Coast

Coach – Stuart Dew

2019 –
Points For – 18th
Points Against – 18th

Top 5 Best and Fairest

  1. Jarrod Witts
  2. David Swallow
  3. Darcy MacPherson
  4. Jarrod Harbrow
  5. Brayden Fiorini

2019 Rising Star Noms
Ben King (Round 19)

Ins – Matthew Rowell, Noah Anderson, Sam Flanders, Jeremy Sharp, Jy Farrar, Malcolm Rosas Jr, Brandon Ellis, Hugh Greenwood, Zac Smith,

Outs – Jack Leslie, Jack Martin, Callum Ah Chee, Brayden Crossley, Tom Nicholls, Connor Nutting, Michael Rischitelli, Brad Scheer, Harrison Wigg, Aaron Young

My Prediction

Hard to know what to think with this team. You see the tease of the young talent who are signing on and they definitely have better talent coming in than what they have lost. That being said, last year was the worst we have seen from an AFL team in quite a while, a serious improvement is required to move from atrocious to poor.

Their backline is reasonable on paper but it is hard to know when their midfield just doesn’t cut it. They have to deal with a lot of ball coming in to their opposition. Thompson and Collins are reasonable KPDs without being outstanding and they have reasonable run from Hanley and Harbrow. Hombsch looked like a solid pick up and still has growth left. I think they have the bones of a good back group.

The midfield is the worst in the competition and they have drafted this year to cover it with Anderson and Rowell likely to play a lot of games early in their careers. They traded for Ellis and Greenwood who will give them greater strength over the ball. Swallow is coming off a good season and Fiorini was solid. They never seemed to settle on a best midfield last year and suffered with change. They will still be well below the standard next year but they have at least invested in the future.

Ben King is a hell of a player to build a forward line around. Hopefully for Wright it takes some pressure off him and he can strong some games together and realise his potential. They have reasonable smalls in the forward line with MacPherson finally stringing games together and Rankine and Lukosius likely to have an impact.

Somewhere over the past couple of years, Witts became a quality ruckman and a good player around the game. He has matured and his game just continually seems to be improving. They have brought back Zac Smith but will be hoping they don’t need him. It is too early still to judge Dew but I suspect that another season of being smashed weekly will put the questions around him.

I like the way they are developing but I don’t see enough improvement in them for them to suddenly start winning serious amounts of games. They are rightfully planning for the longer term and I think this year they will likely win more games than last year but not enough to finish anywhere other than eighteenth. Last for mine.

9 Likes

They’ll still be bottom 4 but they will start to turn things around. Player retention will be the key

Best 22 2020
I Don’t watch much of the suns so this has a bit of guesswork, plus lots of new kids.

B: Hanley Hombsch Lukosius
Hb: Ellis Thompson Harbrow
C: Fiorini Greenwood Miller
HF: Anderson Wright Rankine
F: Ainsworth King Sexton
R: Witts Swallow Weller
Int: Flanders, Rowell, MacPherson, Brodie

Emg: Ballard Day Bowes
Depth Miles, Horlin-Smith

Geez its still a young side, but you would want to give the young kids a run to see how they go and develop in front of blokes like Miles and Horlin-Smith surely.

Anderson, Rowell, Flanders should all be ready to play and Rankine as well if he is over his injury troubles.

Good kids, crap everything else.

2 METER PETER

1 Like

I’m not sure how you can say this, when the previous season, Carlton won less games and at a lower percentage. FarkCarlton.

4 Likes

I think they can jump to 5 or 6 wins. If things go well.

I think they can at best jump out of the bottom 4. so like 13-14th
A few injuries and they might be cooked.
But I’m bullish on the kids that will be debuting next year.

Its just that will be hard as the team to play so many kids at once.

So is Lukosius going to end up a key forward or something more mobile?

What about Rankine? Is he fit to play this year? Will he play midfield or is he going to be predominantly forward? If he’s as good as touted, he’ll be a big addition this year along with their 2 top picks from 2019

My guess is Lukosius will be played as a mobile defender until he adds more size.
Advantage is with Peter and King he would get third defender if he went forward.

I was including Rankine as one of the kids im bullish about debuting, my guess is he will spend time in the forwardline and midfield depending on fitness…

Gold Coast might have potential, but they are still at the bottom in many key indicators.
No stars, inexperienced, young, lacking in firepower.
Lets have a look at them compared with Carlton, who are really not much better, but have one megastar.

Source: draftguru.com.au

2 Likes

Anything could happen, but I think the smart money is they’re a while away from getting much better.

looking at their numbers, they’ve got a total of 12 x 100 gamers, and a further 7 x 50 gamers

And I’m not sure a few of those experienced players are legit firsts players - Hanley & Harbrow are 31 now, Lemmens/Murdoch/Miles/Hombsch/Zac Smith/Horlin-Smith are career bit-part players.

So you’re left with a very, very, very, very young & green side. History says that’s not a good recipe.

And their coach has shown no real indication he has them on the right trajectory.

They’ll win 3 or 4, but bottom for mine.

I reckon Ellis and Greenwood are handy spare parts men who will struggle in a poor team.

I reckon that’s true of about half their list.

Outside Witts, who jumps off the page as a leader?

Witts looks good on the stats sheet but when you watch him play I’m not convinced how much influence he has

Last season they were very competitive for the first 7 or 8 weeks. What changed after that? Was it injuries? Young players tiring?
Were they just fitter than other clubs early and then the other clubs caught up?

On some lists he wouldn’t get a look in, which kinda goes to my point. He’s the only GC player I’d be confident is going to front up and throw himself in.

Not 8 weeks - 4.
Started with a few soft matchups - St K, Freo, Dogs, Blues.

They lost round 5 by 12 goals, that was about it for them.
By round 8 they were 14th with a percentage under 80.

1 Like

Round 7 there were sort of competitive in Perth against WCE.
Round 8 they stuffed up a win and lost by a point (admittedly only to Melbourne).
Round 10 they led Geelong by a goal a couple of minutes before 3 qtr time.

Not saying they were good. But their first half of the year was a mile better than the second half when they fell off the map.

I reckon it’s hard to have an influence as a ruck if your midfield is as bad as the Suns.