Suns in the Media - Part I

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TheSunGod said:
Would Bodhi be our first local lifelong supporter to play for the club?
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Budarick also claimed he grew up supporting the club in this interview but considering he lived in South Australia prior to 2010, I'd say it's unlikely he is a "lifelong" fan like Bodhi. Uwland was born and raised on the GC and is a great example of the generational change we used to talk about early days. We're now (finally) at a point where Gold Coast juniors had the opportunity to pick the Suns when choosing their AFL team around the time they start playing junior footy in the 6-10 age range. I would assume Lachie Weller supported us when Mav started playing for us in 2010 and I think Ethan Read also grew up barracking for the Suns so we're probably going to get another one at the end of this year.

Now we just need to convince Will Day to request a trade to us and we'll start to really build a solid group of Suns supporters on the list.
 

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Big Red Machine said:
Dave Swallow having a "* i got old" moment
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What makes that photo even better is that it would appear Zeke Uwland (2025 draft class) is at the front of the photo and all three may very well be teammates in a few years from now considering Zeke is already in our U18 academy program at just 15 years of age.
 
GC2015 said:
What makes that photo even better is that it would appear Zeke Uwland (2025 draft class) is at the front of the photo and all three may very well be teammates in a few years from now considering Zeke is already in our U18 academy program at just 15 years of age.
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My son plays at Burleigh with Uwland boys.
Zeke is an absolute jet. Very intelligent natural footballer and top kid.
IMO he will make it he's that good. Also very disciplined and dedicated.
 
eppo67 said:
My son plays at Burleigh with Uwland boys.
Zeke is an absolute jet. Very intelligent natural footballer and top kid.
IMO he will make it he's that good. Also very disciplined and dedicated.
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Exciting stuff! I believe Zeke is a halfback with a cool head and good skills from what I've read but obviously that can change over the next few years. I would have thought making the U18 team as a 15 year old would suggest he's well and truly in the mix to get drafted. We'll see how he goes in the U16 National Champs this year and that should give us an indication of whether he's up to the standard with others around his age.

Hard not to get excited when you see the amount of talent that's coming through our academy over the next few years. It's finally all coming together now.
 
Ben Drever said:
Speed kills.
Fast moving teams the winners.

www.afl.com.au

Speed kills: How run-and-gun footy dominated round one

Statistics from the opening round show that speed and dare with ball in hand were rewarded
www.afl.com.au www.afl.com.au
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I think out intent was definitely to move the ball at pace but the consistent fumbles and high pressure from Sydney almost made that impossible.

Maybe we shouldn't be playing night games on the Gold Coast as this is a constant issue.

Will be very interesting under the roof at Marvel to actually see our game plan in place against a team we should beat.

On SM-G996B using BigFooty.com mobile app
 

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The AFL is prepared to lose money on Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney “for a generation”, league boss Gillon McLachlan has declared.
A day after News Corp Australasia executive chairman Michael Miller expressed serious concern for the league’s most recent additions to the competition, McLachlan admitted that while “it’s challenging” for the Suns and Giants more than a decade after joining the AFL, he urged patience.

Addressing the SportNXT conference in Melbourne, McLachlan said on long-range projects, “you’ve got to be prepared day on day in order to win in the end”.

“You may have to be prepared to lose,” he said.
“The (AFL) commission are prepared to lose money on Gold Coast and GWS for a generation.

“On a tactical decision, you might be getting a whack for 30 days to win on the 31st and it’s all forgotten. There’s an element of courage and really knowing where you’re going.”

The two clubs are the most heavily-funded by the league in the competition.

McLachlan elaborated further after his keynote address at the conference.

“There’s always a ladder, and we wish they were winning more games,” he said.

“I think there’s the now, and then the broader.

“Gold Coast and GWS – these are generational decisions. So we’re in constant dialogue about how they go better. If we can help, so they can go better on-field – which would solve a lot of issues – and how we can help them and grow their markets.

“I can see that neither of those teams made the eight last year and Gold Coast has never made the eight. It’s challenging. But there’s a lot of hard work going on and they’ve both got talented lists, and we are very comfortable with the decisions. It’s just at any point in time, if they’re not going as well as you’d like, there’s a challenge.”
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'Gold Coast Suns star David Swallow on becoming the first player to play 200 games for the club - Dwayne's World - Thursday 30th March' by SEN Afternoons
 
GC2015 said:
Dixon confirms in that podcast that he did intend to come back to us after his 5 year contract ended with Port. We'd always heard the rumours that he was desperately homesick and had every intention to come back to the Gold Coast but to actually hear him say those words is interesting. We certainly could have used him in those 2019-2020 seasons when we lost Lynch & May and were a very young team that really needed a few mature players to lead the way. Plus, Dicko was an All-Australian in that 2020 season so clearly he was playing some exceptional footy at the time but then the trade off there is we potentially finish higher on the ladder and miss out on players like Rowell and Anderson.

Pros and cons either way but I wonder if there's still a small part of Charlie that wants to come back to the GC. Not that we need him right now, but it would feel somewhat fitting to have our first ever signing / first ever goal kicker taking part in a finals campaign for us. Maybe that's just me being nostalgic for seeing Dixon in the red and gold though. I know others on here totally disagree and are more than happy to never see Charlie in a red and gold jumper again.
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I could see Cameron trading Rowell and Anderson for a 35 year old Dickinson
 
It gets no easier on Saturday night at Marvel Stadium against the top-placed St Kilda, now the most miserly defensive team in the competition under the coaching of Ross Lyon.

Lyon has the unbeaten Saints flying despite the injury absence of several automatic selections, including King’s twin brother Max. But the Gold Coast tower, who stands 202cm, is confident in the work he has done and has his heart firmly set on helping steer the Suns to a finals breakthrough this year.

“It‘s what I do now that matters,” he said. “And I think if I’m able to put together a good season, and us as a team, put together a great season, that’s when I’ll be able to reflect and look at that journey as a whole.”


Flicking through crime novels was a tool King used to help him switch off during the rehabilitation period. But now that he is back on the field, watching footage of fellow forwards has become a daily endeavour.

It is a habit King picked up as a teenager and one he feels is invaluable as he seeks to establish himself among the upper-echelon of footballers.

“When I was 16, 17, I tried to watch a lot of the really athletic talls like Joe Daniher, Tom Lynch as well and also Buddy (Franklin) coming through, and to be honest, it hasn‘t changed that much now,” he said.

“I still watch Tom Lynch. I still watch Harry Mackay and Charlie Curnow as well. I think I‘ll always be watching film of other key forwards because I’ll always be able to take stuff from their game and try and put it into mine.”

King’s rehabilitation program was designed around building power and strengthening weaknesses. There is a tactical element to his education watching his forward line peers he hopes will round his game.

“I definitely look at different players through different lenses,” he said. “Some guys who are really good at their body work, I watch what they do in the lead up, how they find the drop of the ball, how they protect it, that sort of thing.

“And then guys who are always very dangerous and get a lot of the ball, take a lot of uncontested marks, I‘ll try and watch how they track the ball and their patterns from behind the goals.

“Guys like Jeremy Cameron, those sorts of players, who can find the ball really well and are damaging.”

King has kicked four goals in his first three games back. He said the moments leading into his first game back against the Swans are ones he will never forget.

“It was special. And, I guess, it was refreshing to have that feeling again and feel a bit sick in the stomach, because it was a moment that I pondered so many times over the last year,” he said.

“Driving into the ground, it hit home that I was actually about to play a game. It was a pretty cool feeling, to be honest, seeing the fans walking into the ground on the way in.”


In an ideal world, King would be opposing his twin brother Max in the clash at Marvel Stadium. The Saint underwent shoulder surgery during the off-season and was aiming at returning by around round seven.

“He‘s done long rehabs before and he knows he will come through the other side and finish the year off well,” King said.

Over the past fortnight, chatter about King’s future has arisen in Melbourne.

One breathless report had four clubs expressing interest in a player who is locked away until the end of 2024. If he fires this season, there will be many more.

Much can change in football.

But King, who bought a house he loves in Burleigh while stranded on the sidelines, noted the long-term commitment several Gold Coast mates have made in recent seasons.

He travelled through Europe with a number of them in the off-season and believes they have created the tightest of bonds.

“There‘s a really strong core of players up here who are just committed to the club and the growth of the club, with a lot of us coming from interstate as well,” he said.

“We‘re living up here and we don’t necessarily have friends outside of the football club. So we train all day together and then we go home and we just keep spending time together and hanging out on our days off or on the weekend.

“I feel like we‘re a lot closer than other clubs would be.”

Success breeds success and that has largely eluded the Suns to date.

Despite early losses against the Swans and Essendon, the Suns believe they are capable of rising this year. A win over reigning premiers Geelong at home last week was a good start.

Now they tackle the top-placed team away.
A victory over St Kilda on Saturday night might make a few more people believe in King’s assessment that the Gold Coast are “ready to make that jump”.

“We feel as though we‘ve done the work to feel like we’re ready,” he said. “We’re ready to take that next step … to a side that can play in and win finals.”
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The Kings Ransom said:
I think the no friends outside of footy club could be a good thing for some and a bad thing for others.

It's why having plenty of locals on the list is quite helpful I think.
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I think you need a mix of both these days and I'ld say we're probably a little too reliant on the interstate players at the moment. The Swans seem to have a really good mix of talented players from interstate and graduates of their academy program. The same can be said of the great Brisbane Lions team of 20 years ago with locals like Voss, Akermanis, Ashcroft, Michael and Keating coupled with their interstate stars. Fortunately for us, it would appear that we're about to get a good injection of talent coming through our academy over the next few years so it's entirely possible that the make up of our list will look like Sydney's in a few years from now. That should render better overall outcomes.
 
Raises very good points here. You can't rely on 2-3 players for your midfield. Especially contested beasts, just wears them out. Sides these does have a lot more rotations with players that go through there, and that's what the suns need to have.

“The AFL’s problem child”: Is there light at the end of the tunnel for Gold Coast?

“They seemingly have enough good young players to be competitive, but too often they’re not.”
www.sen.com.au www.sen.com.au
 
Jen2310 said:
Raises very good points here. You can't rely on 2-3 players for your midfield. Especially contested beasts, just wears them out. Sides these does have a lot more rotations with players that go through there, and that's what the suns need to have.

“The AFL’s problem child”: Is there light at the end of the tunnel for Gold Coast?

“They seemingly have enough good young players to be competitive, but too often they’re not.”
www.sen.com.au www.sen.com.au
Click to expand...
Very reasonable
I have to grit my teeth after games like Saturday night because it gives the scum like Matthew Lloyd who for some reason despises not just the Club but the fact we exist the opportunity to legitimately and repeatedly lay the boots in us and we just have to take it
 
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