Round 6
Gold Coast Suns v Essendon
1.15pm, Saturday 18th April 2026
People First Stadium
By Dan Lonergan
As Gold Coast was playing Essendon in warm conditions at People First Stadium at home, all the local leagues were away around Australia. As that match, which the Suns were expected to win comfortably despite the Bombers improving over the last fortnight including breaking a 17 game losing streak last week against Melbourne, I was broadcasting the second division match in the strong Mornington Peninsula Football Netball League between Red Hill and Rye up in wine country on the Peninsula at Red Hill.
As I called that game I was doing my best to multitask, which was not a strength of former American President, Gerald Ford, who was Commander in Chief from the middle of 1974 to January 1976. As my father said, Ford could not walk or talk at the same time and also some more miscellaneous information, he is the only President never to be elected even as Vice President. He replaced Spiro Agnew as Vice President after he was forced to stand down due to a different controversy than Watergate, which claimed the President, Richard Nixon. Watergate to this day more than 50 years ago still fascinates me and I honestly believe it’s the biggest political scandal ever.
Anyway, I digress, which I am very good at. I was multitasking as I was keeping an eye on how the Bombers were going and could they push the Suns and they certainly did in a high scoring encounter with both teams kicking 17 goals each.
There has been criticism of their recruiting over the years particularly high draft picks, but in Sullivan Robey chosen at pick 9 and Jacob Farrow a neat left footer at ten, the Bombers look like they have unveiled some gold, if their early displays are anything to go by.
It’s the second week in a row, the Dons have gone past the ton, but their defence is still an issue letting through too many at the other end and also lost their best defender again in Jordan Ridley with another soft tissue injury.
The game I called was a low scoring scrap with Red Hill coached by the older brother of ex Western Bulldog champ, Bob Murphy, Ben and they have already won as many games as last year in first division, which saw them relegated despite being in most games losing 5 matches by 2 goals or less and only prevailing in one. So far, this year they have got over the line by that 2 goal margin in both matches. Their opponents,Rye are coached by former Essendon player, Brendan Moore, a legend in the MPFNL with Pines from Frankston North.
He played seven games with the Dons and is a great mate of the Bombers’ cool kids of the time, Terry Daniher, Glenn Hawker and Paul Van Der Haar, whose son, Todd also plays in the MPFNL with Mornington in first Division.
Brendan is a great coach from Rye lifting them from not winning a game in 2023 and taking over in 2024, where they won twice and were more competitive to 8 last year where they beat many of the bottom sides comfortably and two finals contenders, Somerville and Crib Point.
Michael Hibberd the former Bomber and Demon has returned to his junior club Somerville, another second division team this season, which will add to an already excellent competition in both divisions. North Melbourne star, Luke Davies Uniake began his junior career at Rye and there are many other AFL players who started their footy journeys on the Mornington Peninsula.
When I could, in between calling the footy at Red Hill where Rye had long periods of dominating territory inside forward 50, but were inaccurate and went long periods without kicking a goal, I kept an eye on the situation on the Gold Coast. Goals were easier to come by up there and it was an old fashioned shoot out, which we have enjoyed quite regularly in the AFL so far this season.
The Suns had Christian Petracca back and he continued where he left off before suffering a hamstring injury, kicking three and accumulating 30 touches. He first played footy at a famous junior club Beverley Hills near Doncaster, where AFL Hall of Famer, Paul Roos was recruited from when that part of Eastern Melbourne was Fitzroy’s recruiting zone in the 1980s.
Matt Rowell, who missed the start of the season, was starting to find his Bownlow Medal form of last year and had 35 disposals, with his in and under work elite. He is a Canterbury Cobra junior, which like Beverley Hills is a club part of the best junior completion in my opinion in Victoria, Yarra Juniors. That competition has been a fertile breeding ground for numerous AFL players over the years like Gold Coast captain, Noah Anderson, who missed Saturday’s win. He came from Hawthorn Citizens also the home of Hawthorn and Gold Coast hard man, Campbell Brown, who was one of the experienced players recruited by the Suns when they first joined the AFL in 2010.
Ed Richards of the Bulldogs is another Hawthorn Citizens Alumni, while St Marys based in Greensborough in Melbourne’s North have produced Daniel Harford and Blake Caracella. All of these junior clubs no matter where they are located need to be praised for their role in our great game at a junior and senior level.
The Academy also has been kind to the Gold Coast and some might say too kind, with 200 cm, Ethan Reed, who runs like the wind lining up on the wing and playing well. He must be one of the tallest wingers ever in the history of the AFL. He has the ability to get up and down the ground very quickly and could play anywhere like Geelong marvel, Mark Blicavs, who on the weekend played his 300 th game, an unbelievable achievement, when you consider he was a pretty good steeple chaser in the sport of track and field before moving to AFL.
With Reed not being the second tall on the forward line and he shown he could work well in tandem with leading goal kicker, Ben King, another precocious talent, Jed Walter gets his chance to cement a spot as a tall forward. Up until now, Walter also a Gold Coast Academy recruit had been inconsistent and had basically only shown glimpses of the enormous talent he possesses and made a contribution as Essendon’s biggest achillies heel a lack of quality tall defenders was exposed.
However, Essendon, who led at half time only went down by nine points and to use a comment from former Carlton coach, Brendan Bolton, when describing the rebuilding Blues in his three and a half year stint there that green shoots are developing, they are not green shoots, they are blossoming plants. The fact they had 11 individual goal kickers was another positive and footy can be a simple game at all levels, if everyone plays their role whatever level of footy they play.
Collingwood on Anzac Day this Saturday awaits the Bombers and the Pies. Thanks to the mercurial Nick Daicos the Pies got out of jail against the Blues, and if the Bombers can produce what they have over the past two weeks, they are more than a flukers chance.
For the Gold Coast they are certainly not playing like the premiership contenders they were considered at the start of the season, but 4 and 2 is a good record and so is 2-nil for Red Hill in the MPFNL.
Since divisional footy started in this comp in 2018, no team relegated from first to second division has never gone straight back up the next season, so it’s a pretty even league, maybe more even than the AFL at the moment.
I started my career commentating the Western Border League taking in the Western District of Victoria involving towns like Hamilton, Portland and Casterton and over the border into South Australia with four clubs in Mt Gambier and Millicent. It’s now turned full circle covering the MPFNL, which I love as well as free flowing AFL Footy where the incredible skills of these players are on show as they were on the Gold Coast on the weekend. May it continue!
GOLD COAST 5.3 8.10 15.11 17.17 (119)
ESSENDON 4.1 10.1 14.5 17.8 (110)
GOALS
Gold Coast: Petracca 3, King 3, Walter 2, Read 2, Long 2, Weller 2, Z.Uwland, Miller, Rogers
Essendon: May 2, Kako 2, Robey 2, Edwards 2, Duursma 2, Wright, Merrett, McGrath, Gresham, Caddy, El-Hawli, Caldwell
BEST (Dan’s best)
Gold Coast: Rowell, Petracca, Miller, Witts and Collins
Essendon: Parish, Roberts, Merrett and Tsiatis
INJURIES
Gold Coast: Nil
Essendon: Ridley (calf tightness)
Crowd: 19,039 at People First Stadium
Read more from Dan Lonergan HERE
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