How the SA connection is helping drive Gold Coast on and off the field
With almost a quarter of the playing list and several of the senior coaching staff from South Australia, the Croweater connection is helping drive the Gold Coast Suns revival on and off the field.
Gold Coast
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Jack Hombsch feels right at home at his new club.
The former GWS and Port Adelaide defender says he is surrounded by so many Croweaters at Gold Coast that much of the team banter revolves around his home State of South Australia.
“It’s quite funny because it’s become a home away from home up here for me,’’ said the 102-game key backman, who was traded to the Suns by the Power in the off-season for a fourth-round draft pick.
“Virtually a quarter of our playing list was born in SA, so we have a lot in common.
“Normally on an AFL list you are outnumbered by all the Victorians, so it’s nice to have so many Croweaters hanging around.
“There is a strong bond between us because whether you are having breakfast or dinner together, are on away trips or just hanging around the changerooms, the conversation oftens
turns to home.
“The school rivalry is a big one — I automatically have an association with Charlie Ballard because I played at Rostrevor College and he was with our biggest rivals Sacred Heart — while it could be as simple as discussing our favourite places to eat in Adelaide.
“It certainly brings us all closer together, which is great.’’
Gold Coast has more Croweaters on its playing list than any AFL team outside of SA.
Remarkably, its 11 is just one fewer than the Crows.
The Power has 20 players who were born in SA.
Collingwood and Sydney each have seven.
The Suns’ SA connection includes Sturt products Hombsch, Ballard, Sam Day and George Horlin-Smith, West Adelaide’s Izak Rankine and Chris Burgess, Central District’s Jez McLennan, Glenelg’s Jordan Murdoch, North Adelaide’s Harrison Wigg, Port Adelaide’s Sean Lemmens and Woodville-West Torrens’ Jack Lukosius.
Three South Australians are also on Gold Coast’s coaching panel — senior coach Stuart Dew,
assistant coach Josh Francou and development coach Tate Kaesler.
The experienced Hombsch, 26, said the strong SA influence had been of particular benefit to the club’s latest batch of teenage draftees — heralded first-round draft picks Lukosius (No. 2 overall) and Rankine (No. 3) and second-round selection McLennan (No. 23).
“There’s no doubt it’s helped them settle into the club, made life more comfortable for them,’’ he told The Advertiser.
The young Suns, who play the struggling Crows at Adelaide Oval on Sunday, have been one of the AFL’s early season surprise packets.
After losing key bookends Tom Lynch (Richmond) and Steven May (Melbourne) at the end of last season, Essendon great Matthew Lloyd declared they would have “the worst list we’ve ever seen put on an AFL field’’.
But after round four, Gold Coast sat sixth with a 3-1 record — the equal best win-loss record in the league.
It had earned the reputation as the AFL's “Cardiac Kids’’, with all four matches decided by less than a goal.
After losing to St Kilda by one point in round one, the Suns have reeled off three consecutive heart-stopping victories against Fremantle (three points), the Western Bulldogs (five) and Carlton (two).
The win against the Blues at Metricon Stadium last Sunday came following a Jack Bowes goal from a left-foot snap with just 13 seconds left on the clock.
“Clearly you’d like to win by bigger margins but we’re happy to take wins however we can get them,’’ said Hombsch after Gold Coast won just four games last year.
“If we have to keep making hard word of them, so be it, as long as we get the job done. We’re certainly happy to be 3-1 after a pretty intense month.’’
The Suns’ endeavour and resilience has been one of the highlights of the first month of the season.
Hombsch said his young team had played with great desire and energy and that winning a close game against the Dockers at home — when they came from three goals behind in the final quarter — had fuelled belief within the group.
“When you are able to win a game in that scenario you do get a bit of extra belief in what you are doing,’’ he said.
“Obviously there is a bit of luck involved because if the ball bounces a different way in close games you can just as easily lose but being involved in so many tight games — and winning them — also lets you feel a bit more comfortable in those situations.’’
Hombsch, who played 89 games for Port from 2013-18 and finished third in club champion voting in 2015 before being hindered by hip and knee injuries prior to being traded, said he had been pleasantly surprised by the high quality of the off-field structure at Gold Coast.
“I didn’t know too much about the club before I arrived, only some negative things that I’d read and heard in the media about it being in trouble with players leaving and not wanting to be here,’’ said Hombsch, who signed a three-year contract with the Suns and is living in the Gold Coast suburb of Miami with his partner, Ali.
“But I’ve been amazed at how good the facilities are, the great structures that are in place and the terrific coaching group.
“And the thing that has most impressed me has been how hungry the young playing group is. I’ve been blown away by how driven they are to make a stand and get better both individually and as a team.’’
General manager of football operations Jon Haines said the Suns had undertaken a “reset’’ at the end of last season, with a strong focus on producing not only better players but better people.
The player welfare program was rebadged as the Personal Excellence department and became the most heavily resourced in the AFL.
Led by triple Brisbane premiership player and former Power coaching director Shaun Hart, the six-person team’s aim is to support the leadership and character development objectives of the club while also having a specific role in career transition for the playing group.
“We really wanted to move the dial on what was typically called the player development/ welfare department and move it to a personal excellence space where we can build great capability in our players, both from a leadership and character perspective,’’ Haines said.
“It was a case of providing our young men with the right support and programs to develop into champion people off the field as well as on the field.
“By building character and great professional habits that in turn will help our football club become one of the best teams in the competition.”
Haines said Gold Coast had not deliberately targeted South Australians in its list rebuild but that the players and coaches it signed had ticked the character box.
The proof has been in the pudding.
THE SOUTHERN SUNS
PLAYERS
Charlie Ballard
19, 195cm, 91kg, utility
SANFL club: Sturt
Recruited: No. 42 at 2017 national draft
Chris Burgess
23, 191cm, 82kg, utility
SANFL club: West Adelaide
Recruited: Special assistance pre-listed player 2018
Sam Day
26, 197cm, 104kg, key forward
SANFL club: Sturt
Recruited: No. 3 at 2010 national draft
Jack Hombsch
26, 194cm, 89kg, key defender
SANFL club: Sturt
Recruited: 17-year-old access selection by GWS in 2011; traded to Port for pick 28 at 2012 national draft; traded to Gold Coast in 2018 for 2019 fourth-round draft pick
George Horlin-Smith
26, 188cm, 84kg, midfielder
SANFL club: Sturt
Recruited: No. 37 at 2010 national draft by Geelong; traded to Gold Coast in 2018 for draft pick 29.
Sean Lemmens
24, 184cm, 84kg, forward-midfielder
SANFL club: Port Adelaide Magpies
Recruited: No. 27 at 2013 national draft
Jack Lukosius
18, 195cm, 83kg, key forward
SANFL club: Woodville-West Torrens
Recruited: No. 2 at 2018 national draft
Izak Rankine
18, 179cm, 76kg, midfielder/forward
SANFL club: West Adelaide
Recruited: No. 3 at 2018 national draft
Jez McLennan
18, 185cm, 82kg, half-back
SANFL club: Central District
Recruited: No. 23 at 2018 national draft
Jordan Murdoch
27, 190cm, 87kg, wingman
SANFL club: Glenelg
Recruited: No. 48 at 2011 national draft by Geelong; selected by Gold Coast as delisted free agent 2018
Harrison Wigg
22, 180cm, 81kg, half-back
SANFL club: North Adelaide
Recruited: No. 35 at 2014 national draft by Adelaide; traded to Gold Coast in 2017 for draft pick 40
COACHES
Stuart Dew
Senior coach, 39
SANFL club: Central District
AFL games: 180 (245 goals) for Port from 1997-2006; 26 (20 goals) for Hawthorn from 2008-09. Premierships 2004 (Port), 2008 (Hawthorn)
Coached: Assistant at Sydney (2010-17), senior coach Gold Coast (2018-19)
Josh Francou
Assistant coach, 44
SANFL club: North Adelaide
AFL games: 156 (72 goals) for Port from 1997-2005. Magarey Medal 1996
Coached: Senior coach North Adelaide 2011-13; head of development coach Sydney 2014-17; assistant coach Adelaide 2018; assistant and head of development and integration coach Gold Coast 2019
Tate Kaesler
Development coach, 39
SANFL club: North Adelaide/Sturt
AFL games: Nil.
Coached: Development coach Adelaide 2009-18; development coach Gold Coast 2019
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