Gold Coast Suns: 2019 – Another Lost Year

I grew up in Melbourne when I could catch a train or a tram to the MCG or Carlton or the Junction oval. I used to sit at my grandparents house and watch Ron Barrassi on TV because we couldn’t yet afford a TV.

 

So it was unsurprising that I followed Melbourne when no one in my family did. They were Richmond and Geelong.

 

My mum used to tell the story of being taken to Victoria Park by her dad when Richmond played Collingwood, with Jack Dyer destroying the Pies. After the game the Pies supporters were baying for Dyers’ blood and he emerged from the change rooms dressed in his Victoria Police uniform.

 

I have moved around Australia but have always managed to follow AFL and have taken little league teams to play on the MCG and SCG as well as supporting my sons to play and umpire AFL.

 

My youngest and I joined the Suns as inaugural members and while he has moved to the states we still converse about AFL and the Suns. Last year (2018) with the Suns was just too much for me as I watched bewildered by what was happening. I saw one of their best players Lyons repeatedly dropped and then shown the door only to star up the road at Brisbane.

 

I saw Michael Barlow, who can still get 40+ positions in the VFL, be considered not good enough to play with all the kids for the Suns while they were trying to lure “experienced players’ to the Suns.

 

This year I have watched bewildered as Sam Day one of the Suns better players was left to languish in the NEAFL while the team struggled.

 

I watched Peter Wright being dropped to the NEAFL when there are many teams who would jump at recruiting him.

 

The final straw was when Jack Martin, (someone I watched from his first game where he injured his shoulder almost where I could touch him from our seats) was offered a Contract extension by the Suns and in the same week he was dropped to the NEAFL by the Suns.

 

All this happens at a time when the Suns are, have been seeking and have received extra assistance from the AFL. My Suns colleagues will say “but what about all the players they have re-signed?” While that is good, you have to look at all the better players they have lost, it is quite a list.

 

So while I have stuck with the Suns through such a lean patch I can’t anymore because I just don’t believe in what they are doing. I am happy to be wrong but I can’t do it anymore.

Any balance to 2019 was being able to watch Melbourne on the TV and being again bewildered how they could go from a preliminary final to slugging it out with the Suns for the wooden spoon. I know they had lots of injuries, and that meant that players were played out of position (eg Fritsch) but there was a lot that was missing. I really have not seen a team butcher their possessions at the rate that Melbourne did going into their forward line.

 

So for me 2019 was a lost year where I got to watch two of the worst performed teams in the league.

 

Hopefully 2020 will be better as I am hoping for a bounce back from Melbourne as I just can’t bring myself to watch the Suns anymore.

 

 

Our writers are independent contributors. The opinions expressed in their articles are their own. They are not the views, nor do they reflect the views, of Malarkey Publications.

 

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