Season 2022 - Gold Coast

Gold Coast

Coach – Stuart Dew

2021 –
Points For – 18th
Points Against – 13th

Top 5 Best and Fairest

  1. Touk Miller
  2. Wil Powell
  3. David Swallow
  4. Sam Collins
  5. Charlie Ballard

2021 Rising Star Noms

Jeremy Sharp (Rnd 18)

Ins – Mabior Chol, Mac Andrew, Charlie Constable, Levi Casboult

Outs – Will Brodie, Aiden Fyfe, Hugh Greenwood, Jarrod Harbrow, Jack Hombsch, Jordan Murdoch, Zac Smith, Luke Towey, Jacob Townsend

My Prediction

There is few things that I struggle with more than writing the preseason prediction for the Gold Coast. Maybe this is the year they finally do something. Probably not though. Feels like another year of the Suns being less than mediocre.

The backline is probably the best performed area of the Suns and it should be. They see plenty of the ball. Collins has stood up and partnering with Ballard to give them reasonable talls. Their half backs are average with Powell probably leading the way along with Lemmens on Budarik.

The midfield sounds ok on paper and you can see that at some stage it should be a good one. Rowell and Anderson alongside Miller is a pretty good start. Greenwood would have been handy if they were a reasonably well run organisation but they arent and now he plays for North. They will looks like millionaires in some games but other games will look well below average.

The forward line is built for the future if they can keep their talent. Future Bombers Full Forward Ben King is lining up in his final season on the Gold Coast and will be supported by Chol who will play four or five ripping matches and four or five terrible ones interspersed with a dozen invisible ones. They need a lot more from Lukosuis, Ainsworth and Rankine than what we have seen so far.

The rucks look better than last year when they didnt have any. This year Witts returns from knee injury and they picked up Chol to give him a chop out. they needs Witts to play some seriously good football. The coach is keeping the seat warm for the AFL to parachute in Clarkson at some stage which is probably necessary as there has been little proof that Dew is doing much more than propping up the struggling Gold Coast bakery industry.

I have no faith that the Gold Coast are going to do anything new this year. They haven’t looked competitive in a long time since Ablett carried them on his bodgy shoulders. There is some pretty good young talent there but it is very young and they dont have quality senior players supporting them. I cant see them climbing anywhere near the finals and think anywhere twelfth or above would be good for them. I think 14-16 is that landing point.

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I’m pleased I read that one. Good read. Cheers.

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Last. They stink like rotten faeces.

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Rowell is still struggling to shake off the effects of those 2 serious injuries. He was a talent prior, remains to be seen if he can recapture that spark he had on debut, l doubt he will ever be that player again. Rankine has stagnated after looking like a freakish talent. The one who has clearly under performed is Ainsworth. They are not going anywhere, when they should be going to Tassie.

And we actually play them in Melbourne (Marvel) for the first time since 2016.

Bottom 4 in Dew’s final year at the helm.

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Is Clarkson going to be their coach within 12 months? I reckon that will be the AFL’s last desperate attempt to get Gold Coast to work

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Just fold already

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Will claim the spoon IMO

FOLD & DIE!!!

they are a fkn mind boggling club. look at their ins - just the run of the mill average to sh*t list of players. casboult FFS. the types of players they target has always been terrible and a huge factor to why they suck.

another year of irrelevance

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They still exist?

In fairness to the Suns, I think it’s more to do with the fact that decent players don’t want to go there, than them targeting average players. Having said that, the likely reason players don’t want anything to do with GC is because they’re such a sh!tshow, so they’ve brought it on themselves.

Best 22

GOLD COAST SUNS

B: Will Powell, Sam Collins, Jack Bowes

HB: Oleg Markov, Charlie Ballard, Jack Lukosius

C: Brandon Ellis, Touk Miller, Sam Flanders

HF: Izak Rankine, Sam Day, Ben Ainsworth

F: Mabior Chol , Ben King, Alex Sexton

FOLL: Jarrod Witts, Matt Rowell, Noah Anderson

I/C: David Swallow, Brayden Fiorini, Lachie Weller, Connor Budarick,

Emg: Elijah Hollands, Alex Davies, Joel Jeffrey, Malcolm Rosas Jnr, Jeremy Sharp, Levi Casboult, Mac Andrew

I’m not confident Ainsworth holds his spot over one of emergencies they want to give game time to Hollands if knee better and Davies rated a top 10 pick too.

On Talent they shouldn’t be bottom 4
On ticker, well they are bottom 4, soulless club.
12-16th IMO.

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Whatever flesh is left on the carcass will continually be picked off until there is nothing left

Remember when some of us here wanted ainsworth? He is a glorified delolio.

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WSPHU

How good will it be next year to see Ben King in the outs as he becomes one of ours.

guys not wanting to go there is a factor, but a lot of it is self inflicted.

Peter Wright went from playing 22/22 games in the reeerves to playing 21/22 in seniors at Essendon?
Or Saad, was in and out for GC, and hasn’t missed a game in 4 years since?
Jarryd Lyons, Greenwood - even chopped Rischitelli who was their longest serving, and most experienced player in their history?

They treat their list like a commodity, then wonder why their players treat them like a paycheque. Loyalty is a two way street.

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I’d add that their connection between coaching, a game plan or style, and their actual playing lists has also consistently failed to get the balance right.

When the commentators get really excited just because they think they can see some sort of preferred game plan or style, even if only for a quarter or two, you should be concerned. Especially if it’s as simplistic as rebounding quickly through the guts then kick long to a one out forward contest.

Add their chopping and changing of actual strategy based on one or two players.
Whether it’s pandering to individuals- Eg the Ablett does what the Ablett wants, to the detriment of team growth. With the result they saw no role for Lyon.
Or let’s play a novice like King as a one out champion forward, rather than insisting he learn to operate alongside 2MP for a couple of years.
Or whether it’s an overestimation of their list strengths- a contested stoppage game might work if every one of their mids was fit. But how often has that been the case? Hello Rowell. And they lack depth to cover those inevitable holes.

Rather than decide on a preferred system, style or game plan, then draft & recruit accordingly, they’re a year to year grab bag of boiled lollies.

they gave Rory Atkins a 5 year deal

it sums them up 100%

Rory atkins

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