Gold Coast Suns Viability - How Long Have They Got?

[Dancin' Douggy]

Re: Gold Coast Suns Viability - How Long Have They Got?

They are literally disgusting

[GVGjr]

From Code Sports
Gold Coast season 2025 preview
Is this finally the year it comes together? The Suns have continued to show flashes of shine across this decade, yet still haven’t played finals in their brief history in the AFL.
What needs to happen for them to break through in Damien Hardwick’s second season at the Gold Coast?

SURPRISE PACKET OF 2024
Bodhi Uwland began 2024 with just three senior games to his name and ended the season as runner-up in the Suns’ best and fairest. The Suns Academy product steadily built himself into one of the most reliable medium-defenders in the competition. Damien Hardwick handed him tough roles on the competition’s best small forwards and he was rarely ever beaten. In a team built on first-round draft talent, this rookie draft pick-up shone as brightly as anybody.

INS AND OUTS
IN: Cooper Bell (No.49 draft pick), Asher Eastham (Rookie Draft), Zak Evans (Category B rookie), Lachlan Gulbin (Category B rookie), Elliott Himmelberg (free agent, Adelaide), Max Knobel (Rookie Draft), Leo Lombard (No.9 draft pick, Academy), John Noble (trade, Collingwood), Daniel Rioli (trade, Richmond)
OUT: Rory Atkins (trade, Port Adelaide), Sandy Brock (delisted), Levi Casboult (retired), Sam Day (delisted), Brandon Ellis (retired), Oskar Faulkhead (delisted), Jack Lukosius (trade, Port Adelaide), Darcy Macpherson (delisted), Jack Mahony (delisted), Hewago Oea (delisted), Will Rowlands (delisted), James Tsitas (delisted)

SUNS' 2025 BEST 23
FB: Mac Andrew, Sam Collins, Bodhi Uwland
HB: Dan Rioli, Charlie Ballard, John Noble
C: Sam Clohesy, Noah Anderson, Wil Powell
HF: Sam Flanders, Jed Walter, Ben Ainsworth
FF: Ben Long, Ben King, Bailey Humphrey
FOLL: Jarrod Witts, Matt Rowell, Touk Miller
INT: Will Graham, Jake Rogers, Nick Holman, Lachie Weller, Leo Lombard

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Rioli and Noble instantly upgrade the back six and allows Hardwick to keep Flanders in a mid-forward rotation where he can do the most damage. First-rounder Leo Lombard will likely get an early look in the senior side as a harassing small-forward capable of stints in midfield.

WHO’S PLAYING FOR A CONTRACT?
David Swallow. Now the last remaining inaugural Sun on the list, the former skipper saw his role diminish with Hardwick at the helm last season. Started as the sub in eight of his 20 games and now aged 32, could struggle to hold down a senior spot as the club’s young talent progresses.
COACH STATUS
Damien Hardwick is entering the second year of a six-year deal and although the expectation will be incredibly high for the Suns to play finals in 2025 after more than a decade of disappointing finishes, it would be incredibly surprising if he was moved on. The Suns ended 2024 with the most wins in a single season in club history and the eye test suggested they were on the right track.

LAST YEAR IN CONTRACT
Alex Sexton, Asher Eastham, Brayden Fiorini, Connor Budarick, David Swallow, Jy Farrar, Malcolm Rosas, Matt Rowell, Max Knobel, Nick Holman, Sam Collins, Sean Lemmens, Tom Berry
POSITION THAT NEEDS TO BE FILLED AND WHO CAN FILL IT?
With Jack Lukosius gone the stage is set for Jed Walter to make the sophomore leap and become a key presence inside 50 alongside Ben King. Walter has all the tools to be a future Coleman Medallist but he struggled to read the game in his first season. The Suns coaching staff noted that early and have gone to work educating him on the finer aspects of key forward craft. There will be much bigger expectations on the former No. 3 draft pick this season.

BURNING QUESTION
Will the Suns play finals? For the past five years it has felt like the Suns are on the cusp of making the jump into the top eight, only to fall short in the dying stages each season. They aggressively targeted Rioli and Noble in the trade period and have brought in another top-tier talent in Lombard – 2025 has to be the year they make good on all the promise, right?

[Bornadog]

New Captain

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[Axe Man]

Rival clubs query Suns' job for Hardwick's partner

The impact on Gold Coast's soft cap is central to opposition clubs' concerns over the Suns' decision to employ Damien Hardwick's partner, writes Damian Barrett

GOLD Coast's decision to employ the partner of coach Damien Hardwick has raised eyebrows at rival clubs, which now intend to seek answers from the AFL's integrity department.

Alexandra Crow, Hardwick's partner, recently started with the Suns as a consultant on the club's consumer and commercial strategy projects.

Crow's employment has prompted some clubs, already agitated over restrictions on football department spending, to ask questions around the Suns' hiring of Crow and whether the wage was to be included in the club's soft cap.

When contacted by AFL.com.au, Suns CEO Mark Evans said: "I know the role and the size of the role and I am certain there will be no issues for the AFL or club on any front."

Hardwick was appointed coach of the Suns in late 2023, just 90 days after he had walked out on a contract with the Tigers citing personal burnout.

Hardwick and North Melbourne's Alastair Clarkson are the AFL's top-paid coaches.

Crow had worked in the administration at Richmond, where Hardwick was a three-time premiership coach.

Last week the AFL concluded a probe into an arrangement between Geelong coach Chris Scott and Morris Finance, with AFL CEO Andrew Dillon saying the deal was "in the realms of the soft cap".

A raft of AFL-ordered financial cutbacks during the 2020 season, the first of two seasons disastrously impacted by the COVID pandemic, led to a severe slashing of the finances able to be spent by clubs on non-playing personnel within football departments.

The soft cap for each club in 2025 is $7.7 million. Twenty per cent of a senior coach's salary can be paid outside the cap.

[Sedat]

No big deal. It's only a matter of time before Dimma trades his current GF in for a 24yo Pilates instructor from Byron Bay.

[The Underdog]

Re: Gold Coast Suns Viability - How Long Have They Got?

If I was going to design a new jumper to replace the most boring jumper in the comp, I’m not sure I could do worse than this. I hope it looks better on field.
[ATTACH=CONFIG]1484[/ATTACH]

Well we finally get to see it in a game and as suspected, it looks shit. Just looks like a red top. The logo is completely indistinguishable. The absolute opposite of what a football jumper should be.

[mighty_west]

Well we finally get to see it in a game and as suspected, it looks shit. Just looks like a red top. The logo is completely indistinguishable. The absolute opposite of what a football jumper should be.

It just looks like a training top doesn't it? I do graphic design work myself and whilst it doesn't look horrible (would be an ok training top as a mentioned) for what it is supposed to be it just doesn't work and you could see this from the when it was first unveiled, even the S looks too "corporate" for mine, think they should have gone down the Port Power route and designed something like what that 9 year old girl designed, a great "footy" jumper, especially for a club like GC who have been irrelevant since the start, nothing too fancy but stripes or two V's like Port, a sash whatever, then make up something more "fancy" for the kids to purchase.

[jeemak]

It just looks like a training top doesn't it? I do graphic design work myself and whilst it doesn't look horrible (would be an ok training top as a mentioned) for what it is supposed to be it just doesn't work and you could see this from the when it was first unveiled, even the S looks too "corporate" for mine, think they should have gone down the Port Power route and designed something like what that 9 year old girl designed, a great "footy" jumper, especially for a club like GC who have been irrelevant since the start, nothing too fancy but stripes or two V's like Port, a sash whatever, then make up something more "fancy" for the kids to purchase.

Even two gold hoops over the orange/ red would look better. Logo on the breast.

[soupman]

I don't hate it.

It's certainly better than what it was.