Gold Coast took on the Giants

Gold Coast                           3.1    6.9    12.11    16.13 (109)
Greater Western Sydney    3.1    5.2    8.6    12.7 (79)

Gold Coast has secured its inaugural win at Metricon Stadium by 30 points while GWS has claimed the Whitfield Shield.

Both teams will come away as winners from this clash as Gold Coast finally wins in front of their home ground and GWS are all but guaranteed the number one selection at the upcoming NAB AFL Draft.

Peter Matera and Gary Ablett were brilliant for the Suns, while William Hoskin-Elliot booted five goals for GWS.

It was Tomlinson who got the Giants off to the perfect start, booting a goal with in the first minute to commence proceedings. It didn’t take the Suns long to respond however, with Liam Patrick and Campbell Brown bagging the next two goals to give Gold Coast the lead.

What came next was some magic from William Hoskin-Elliot, landing the next two goals to wrestle back the lead for GWS. A late goal to Aaron Hall for the Suns brought back to level as the quarter time siren sounded.

Hall seemed to pick up where he finished; nailing the first goal of the second quarter to edge the Suns noses back in front. Some lose checking in defence for Gold Coast however allowed Stephen Clifton to sneak past the Suns defence and get a goal back for the Giants. Patrick’s second goal edged Gold Coast back in front before Hoskin-Elliot’s third goal on again brought the game back under a goal.

A late goal to Brendan Matera provided the Suns with a 13-point margin to half time.

Gold Coast were blistering at the start of the third quarter, a Bennell goal was the first of five unanswered goals to the home team, that went a long way to setting up a maiden win at Metricon.

GWS though still had other plans and eventually manged to compose themselves, kicking consecutive point to bring the margin back to 23 points.

A late goal to Cambell Brown however steadied the ship for the Suns and left the margin at 29 points at the final change.

A Giant task laid ahead of GWS, who had a crack early in the quarter. Indeed, GWS kicked four of the first six goals of the quarter, including Hoskin-Elliot’s fifth, to bring the margin back to 17 with a few minutes left in a game.

It was left to Ablett to apply the finishing touches, booting the final two goals to snap a 17 game losing streak at Metricon Stadium by the tune of 30 points.

Gold Coast will now face a massive task when they travel to the MCG to take on Hawthorn while GWS will chase their third win of the year against Melbourne in Canberra.

VOTES

3) Peter Matera

2) Gary Ablett Jr

1) William Hoskin-Elliot

GOALS
Gold Coast: Hall 3, Brown 3, Hall 3, Matera 2, Patrick 2, Bennell, Caddy, Lynch
Greater Western Sydney: Hoskin-Elliott 5, Cameron 2, Bugg, Clifton, Scully, Smith, Tomlinson

BEST
Gold Coast: Matera, Ablett, Bennell, Swallow, Hall, Warnock
Greater Western Sydney: Hoskin-Elliott, Treloar, Smith, Scully, Cornes, Davis

INJURIES
Gold Coast: Nil
Greater Western Sydney: Coniglio (hamstring) replaced in selected side by Clifton; Townsend (groin) replaced in selected side by Hombsch

SUBSTITUTES
Gold Coast: Jeremy Taylor replaced Steven May in the third quarter
Greater Western Sydney: Luke Power replaced Israel Folau in the third quarter

Reports: Nil

Umpires: Leppard, Fila, Mollison

Official crowd: 14,657 at the Metricon Stadium