AFL Round 16 Gold Coast v Collingwood: All the news and analysis as Suns defy Pies
Gold Coast has withstood a Nick Daicos-inspired last-quarter charge from Collingwood to celebrate one of its biggest home wins and keep its dream of a maiden finals berth on track.
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The bold call to unleash Sam Flanders back into the midfield has catapulted Gold Coast to its best win under Damien Hardwick and kept the Suns in the September hunt.
Hardwick was lauded for his call to shift Flanders to halfback earlier this season but it was the reversal that proved a masterstroke in a season-defining win over Collingwood on Saturday night.
After watching his star-studded midfield get torched by Fremantle six days earlier, Hardwick moved one of his most prized magnets back into the on-ball rotation and sat back to watch the magic happen.
In a first half flurry Flanders, who in the corresponding fixture 12 months ago was still fighting to prove he deserved another contract, had 22 disposals and five clearances to set the Suns on course to a coming of age victory.
He ended the night with 33 touches and a goal, having set the tone for a midfield that had been humbled in its last outing and needed to respond with its unbeaten home record at stake.
Noah Anderson answered the goal with a game-high 39 disposals in another brilliant outing at home. In the cozy confines of People First Stadium he is one of the best midfielders in the AFL. His challenge now is to convert that form for the road.
The 11-point triumph was a coming of age victory for Gold Coast, who in the same game last year was trounced to the tune of 78 points as Collingwood flexed its future premiership muscle.
An injured Touk Miller watched that match from the sideline, furious he could not impact the result. When he had his chance to make amends on Saturday night, the co-captain took it with both hands.
Miller was everywhere. He finished with a team-high nine score involvements and ran like a man possessed, clearly also spurred on by the disappointing defeat to the Dockers the previous week.
The Suns had a litany of star turns and they needed them, because the Magpies’ ominous fourth quarter march was something to behold.
When Jordan de Goey and Nick Daicos lit up People First Stadium with two brilliant goals in as many minutes, Collingwood looked destined to record yet another famous comeback victory.
“Hint to other coaches when the game is like that, tag Daicos and tag De Goey,” Suns coach Damien Hardwick said post-game.
“They are unbelievable and they work together so we tried to get it done and we couldn’t. “The pleasing thing from my my point of view was when we did get headed we responded really well.
“I was really pleased with our leadership. Noah Andreson, Touk and Witters (Jarrod Witts) stood up. We Got control and got the game back on our terms a little bit. They are a very impressive side, Collingwood.”
De Goey and Daicos. Call them barometers, matchwinners, superstars et al. Pick your superlatives because their influence when the game was on the line was astronomical.
First up was de Goey, with a booming bomb from the right-forward boundary that split the posts and sent the previously silent Collingwood crowd into raptures.
It was one of two great goals from the returning champ, who – with a game-high 11 score involvements – had a hand in almost everything for the visitors.
Daicos (32 disposals, five clearances and two goals) had a scattershot evening with the boot but his brilliance shone through in the key moments.
His candy-selling, sidestepping goal to put Collingwood within a point midway through the final quarter, only moments after de Goey’s bomb, seemed to signal the start of a Magpies avalanche.
And in previous years, it would have. The Suns could have so easily faltered.
Nathan Krueger kicked true to put the Magpies in front late in the quarter and the black and white army started the cheers.
Instead Gold Coast answered the call. Ben Long and Ben Ainsworth delivered a pair of dagger blows to lift the Suns off the canvas.
Somewhat lost in the star turns from the superstar midfielders was the monumental work of Jarrod Witts. If not for his ruck domination and work around the ground, the Suns would have been soundly beaten.
After having his colours lowered by Sean Darcy and Luke Jackson last weekend – and watching his understudy Ned Moyle earn a four-year contract extension days later – the proud co-captain responded with a close-to best on ground display.
His deft kick to hit Jack Lukosius on the lead for a crucial third-quarter goal the icing on a 19-dispoSal, 32-hitout performance to just remind the world he is far from a spent force.
Collingwood loaded up on returning stars for a fixture they have dominated for almost a decade.
They had won the past five meetings at People First Stadium by an average of 41 points – and Craig McRae’s men came ready to play. But Hardwick’s side was this time up for the fight.
“I just said to the players we love when you put that jumper on you play right to the end,” McRae said.
“Anyone who watches us the last couple of years knows we are coming. We are proud of that part of our culture.
“We want to continue to celebrate that but we don’t want to be in these positions. How many times do you want to put yourselves in a position where you have to do this miraculous comeback. They are the things we will wrestle with.
“We have lived in it for the last two-and-a-half years. Some circumstances are different to this one but there has been a bit of a pattern the last couple of games.
“You look at the intent in the last quarter in the pressure and those things are really obvious so then why aren’t we deliving that in the second quarter. You wrestle with this stuff. That is the emotion at the minute.”
The challenge now for the Suns, as it has been all year, is to take this form on the road.
North Melbourne awaits at Marvel Stadium – a game most would have pencilled in for four points only a few weeks ago, but now looks a genuine test of the Suns’ credentials.
They have proved the point at home. Now get a win on the road and really give the AFL world something to chew on.
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