With the Suns starting 0-2 with the little master Gary Ablett struggling with a shoulder injury that occurred last year, I decided to investigate why they are struggling when the Giants seem to be going from strength to strength.
Obviously living in the party scene that is the Gold Coast, isn’t encouraging players to actually want to move to the sunshine state. Since the clubs inception, Gold Coast have had close to a dozen players transfer to their club, and of those players, only 6 of them are still on the list. Of those six, only two have been named All Australian. Nick Malceski and Gary Ablett.
Since Greater Western Sydney came into the fold a year later, they have had 14 players with previous AFL experience come into their club. From those players only 8 are still at the club with only two that have been named All Australian (Ryan Griffen and Callan Ward) with two others that were unlucky to be not named as All Australian in Heath Shaw and Shane Mumford.
Based on this fact alone, Ablett has carried the Suns too long. The giants have an even spread of experienced players that have been injected into key areas. Mumford in the ruck, Shaw and Davis in the backline and Griffen and Ward in the midfield. Ablett has to carry the Suns on his shoulders and with his injured shoulder not enough players. Their backline has Malceski and Broughton, but they cannot be relied on. Malceski was even shocked at the state of the young players mindset and efforts.
The kids that the Giants and Suns have recruited can arguably be classed as equal in quality. While the Giants might fall away from this early start, there is much to like about how they are building and adding more experienced heads around these less experienced players. The Suns, well they have a sign that reads ‘Wanted: More experienced and leaders at out club.’ However no one is applying.
