Toast Welcome to the Suns, Lachie Gulbin

[Jen2310]

Burleigh Bombers junior Gulbin joins the club following an impressive 2024 campaign in which he played four Coates Talent League matches for the SUNS Academy alongside 10 matches in the club’s VFL side.


The 17-year-old, who turns 18 on Sunday, also won a senior QAFL Premiership with Burleigh in 2023.


Known for his combativeness and tackle pressure, Gulbin joins a growing list of home-grown products on the SUNS list for 2025.


“It’s a wonderful achievement for Lachlan who has thoroughly earned this opportunity,” StreetSmarts GC SUNS Academy Manager Kath Newman said.


“It’s also a proud moment for everyone who has played a part in his journey to see another member of our Academy graduate on to the club’s AFL list.”

SUNS add three more players in rookie draft

The Gold Coast SUNS have added three more young talents to its list following Friday’s 2024 Telstra AFL Rookie Draft.

www.goldcoastfc.com.au

 

[GC2015]

The 17-year-old, who turns 18 on Sunday, also won a senior QFA Premiership with Burleigh in 2023.

As was the case with Jed Walter, Ethan Read and Will Graham growing up playing junior footy together at PBC, Gulbin also grew up playing junior footy at Burleigh with Leo Lombard, Zeke Uwland and Beau Addinsall. In fact, Zeke Uwland was BOG in that 2023 QFA Senior Premiership that Gulbin competed in. Lombard, Uwland and Gulbin were all named in our academy leadership team this year so these guys not only have high levels of cohesion from their Burleigh days, but they also have leadership qualities.

2024 GC U18 Academy Leadership Team (Gulbin third from the right)

Having guys who have already played together for 5+ years in the juniors is really going to hold us in good sted going forward. It's like the highly successful Penrith Panthers team we're seeing right now who have had guys like Nathan Cleary and Jarome Luai playing together since their junior academy days at 14 years of age. Team cohesion is such an underrated stat in professional sports and it often plays a huge factor in who wins.

As for Gulbin specifically, he played 10 VFL games for us this year so obviously our recruiters have seen something in him that's worth trialing. Good size at 187cm and there isn't much about him online, but I did find this - "A great leader who was in the leadership group, Gublin had become accustomed to a high forward role. He has great power, speed, tackling and hits the scoreboard." Dimma seems to love these quick players who will pressure the opposition with tackling, so Gulbin may well get a chance to play if he can show something in the VFL.

Side note - Burleigh is becoming such a powerhouse at the junior level that I would seriously consider removing a team like Surfers Paradise from the QAFL and replace them with Burleigh. That might seem a bit harsh on Surfers, but it's very obvious to anyone that has their finger on the pulse with junior GC footy that PBC, Broadbeach and Burleigh are streets ahead of clubs like Surfers and Labrador and a lot of the good players from Broady + PBC are actually Burleigh juniors. It's a real shame that a player like Leo Lombard was wearing a Broadbeach shirt on draft night this week when in reality he is very much a Burleigh Bombers junior and should be recognised that way.

 

[lommy]

Pre-Season | Gulbin keen to get stuck-in

StreetSmarts SUNS Academy graduate Lachie Gulbin fronts the media for the first time of his career on day 1 of the pre-season.

www.goldcoastfc.com.au

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[SandyToes]

As was the case with Jed Walter, Ethan Read and Will Graham growing up playing junior footy together at PBC, Gulbin also grew up playing junior footy at Burleigh with Leo Lombard, Zeke Uwland and Beau Addinsall. In fact, Zeke Uwland was BOG in that 2023 QFA Senior Premiership that Gulbin competed in. Lombard, Uwland and Gulbin were all named in our academy leadership team this year so these guys not only have high levels of cohesion from their Burleigh days, but they also have leadership qualities.

2024 GC U18 Academy Leadership Team (Gulbin third from the right)

Having guys who have already played together for 5+ years in the juniors is really going to hold us in good sted going forward. It's like the highly successful Penrith Panthers team we're seeing right now who have had guys like Nathan Cleary and Jarome Luai playing together since their junior academy days at 14 years of age. Team cohesion is such an underrated stat in professional sports and it often plays a huge factor in who wins.

As for Gulbin specifically, he played 10 VFL games for us this year so obviously our recruiters have seen something in him that's worth trialing. Good size at 187cm and there isn't much about him online, but I did find this - "A great leader who was in the leadership group, Gublin had become accustomed to a high forward role. He has great power, speed, tackling and hits the scoreboard." Dimma seems to love these quick players who will pressure the opposition with tackling, so Gulbin may well get a chance to play if he can show something in the VFL.

Side note - Burleigh is becoming such a powerhouse at the junior level that I would seriously consider removing a team like Surfers Paradise from the QAFL and replace them with Burleigh. That might seem a bit harsh on Surfers, but it's very obvious to anyone that has their finger on the pulse with junior GC footy that PBC, Broadbeach and Burleigh are streets ahead of clubs like Surfers and Labrador and a lot of the good players from Broady + PBC are actually Burleigh juniors. It's a real shame that a player like Leo Lombard was wearing a Broadbeach shirt on draft night this week when in reality he is very much a Burleigh Bombers junior and should be recognised that way.

Perpetually surprised Surfers plays above Burleigh
This end of the Coast juniors are either PBC or Burleigh
On the other hand Junior talent development is different to winning QAFL premierships


Sent from my iPhone using BigFooty.com

 

[GC2015]

Gulbin is getting a lot of coverage at the moment. It's not often you see a rookie pick receiving this kind of attention when there was no other reason for it (like a previous career in another sport). I already mentioned the Burleigh connection Lachie has with Leo from their junior days, but another interesting fact about Gulbin is that he graduated from All Saints with Zeke Uwland and Beau Addinsall this year. So these guys have all played a ton of footy together at the club, academy, rep AND school level. It's the long-term cohesion these players have that is really going to separate us from every other club in the future. Look at some of the quotes beloe to see how previous relationships from club, academy and school days is proving beneficial in their AFL careers.

Gulbin ‘comfortable’ in Academy transition

Streetsmarts SUNS Academy graduate Lachlan Gulbin says the Academy environment has him well prepared to adapt to life on the SUNS AFL list.

www.goldcoastfc.com.au

Gold Coast may be stacked with first-round talent but that has not stopped rookies from playing themselves into starting roles in the past.

Last year both Bodhi Uwland and Sam Clohesy became staples in Hardwick’s best-23 and the former, also a Burleigh junior, went on to finish runner-up in the club’s best and fairest.

“They’re a great inspiration for me,” Gulbin said of Uwland and Clohesy.

“I’m good mates with Bodhi, I did a few trainings with him. (His success) had made me hungrier and shown me what is possible.

“He’s a great person to work with, he always pushes me to my limits … it’s good to work with people who are fitter than you, it just helps you so much.”

https://www.heraldsun.com.au/sport/afl/news/lachlan-gulbin-on-how-allies-snub-academy-days-inspired-him-to-gold-coast-suns-list-spot/news-story/a5369067576bd9033cc9b40b7b7b8f03

Perpetually surprised Surfers plays above Burleigh
This end of the Coast juniors are either PBC or Burleigh
On the other hand Junior talent development is different to winning QAFL premierships

Surfers used to be a powerhouse when it came to juniors, but that has changed now and we're seeing the southern clubs like Burleigh + Palm Beach really taking it to another level. I'm pretty sure a club like Burleigh wouldn't have any issues recruiting players for their senior QAFL team if they were let in. Burleigh has become pretty well known as a desirable place to live since COVID.