Callum Dick analyses Gold Coast’s 2024 campaign and the breakthroughs in Damien Hardwick’s first year in charge
It was once said Jack Lukosius would always have a spot in Gold Coast’s senior team. Now, the Suns have proven they can live without him. CALLUM DICK explains why.
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Mac Andrew’s momentous after-the-siren goal to snap a 17-game losing streak away from home gave Gold Coast fans something to smile about after a meagre few months.
As a circuit breaker it came too late to save the season, which ended the previous week in Perth with the disappointing defeat to West Coast.
But as a promise of things to come it was crucial, given Gold Coast will once again watch the September action from the periphery.
Make no mistake, this was not the season the Suns or their fans wanted.
When Gold Coast’s top brass put finals firmly on the agenda and it was echoed by incoming coach Damien Hardwick, the club knowingly put a target on its back.
The arrows came in a flurry after the loss to the Eagles, which relegated the Suns to at maximum a 12-win season – not enough to finish inside the top eight.
If they win at least one of their remaining two games it will be their most successful season to date – ultimately a hollow achievement, given the lack of finals, but a measure for growth nonetheless.
However, they were never realistically a premiership threat at this stage of their development, especially in the first year under a new coach.
The bold finals declaration did not pay off and the club will cop its fair share of criticism as a result, but as Hardwick put it last week, progression is not always linear.
This season was as much a fact-finding mission for him and his coaching staff as anything else. And he has learned a lot about what is at his disposal.
Let’s start with the flavour of the month: Andrew.
More than once this season Hardwick has lamented not having multiple of the 201cm athletic freak in his side and over the past fortnight Andrew has shown why.
Since being moved forward against the Eagles he has booted seven goals, chief among them the matchwinner against the Bombers.
His presence inside 50 completely changed the point of attack for the Suns, whose Achilles heel for months had been inefficiency in front of goal.
Andrew’s athleticism makes him a match-up nightmare wherever he is on the ground. Settling in defence at the start of the season was an obvious choice – his athletic profile perfectly suited the third-tall intercept role which is in vogue in the AFL at the moment.
Hardwick had toyed with the idea of Andrew playing forward during pre-season before ultimately settling on him in defence, where it must be said he enjoyed a breakout start to the year.
Now he presents as a legitimate swingman option – of which there are few in the AFL – and a crucial lever for Hardwick to pull at either end of the ground.
“It just shows the versatility of our group,” Suns winger Sam Clohesy told this masthead.
“We have so many guys who can play different positions and Mac is a great example of that. He goes from being one of the best intercept backmen in the league to in the last two weeks kicking seven goals.”
Chalk it up as a successful lesson learned as the Suns recalibrate for season 2025.
And Andrew’s was not the only magnet moved this year. In fact, Hardwick’s side has been in flux all season.
The Suns have so far used 38 players in 2024 – the fifth-most of any team in the AFL. But whereas some, like Richmond, were forced into it through injury, Gold Coast’s moves have mostly been by design.
When Hardwick arrived last August there was no rush to free agency. He wanted 2024 to be a year to take stock of what was at his disposal and he has not been afraid to tinker on the fly.
He has dropped stars, given rookies a chance and moved the magnets forward and back in an effort to find the perfect balance.
Sending Andrew forward is the latest in a season-long search for answers.
Ben Long was destined to play across halfback when he arrived from St Kilda but is now one of the first picked inside 50 after an impressive season highlighting his marking prowess and tackle pressure at ground level.
Alex Sexton was almost on the scrap heap as an all-or-nothing goal kicker but added a different dimension to the Suns’ run and dash across halfback this season, particularly while Lachie Weller was out injured.
Sam Flanders became one of the best running defenders in the AFL for two months when he swapped midfield for halfback – only for Hardwick to send him back into the middle of the ground, where he has flourished once more.
Not every move was a successful one.
Jack Lukosius spent a month in defence before Hardwick conceded the switch had not worked and returned him to the forward line.
The former No. 2 draft pick was dropped for the Essendon clash, fuelling rumours he could be poised for a return home to South Australia.
After all, Hardwick earlier this season declared Lukosius would always have a place in the senior side so long as he was coach. That statement was proved false only a few months later.
After the Bombers win, the coach conceded he still did not know how best to use the uber-talented Lukosius’ skill set. Will he be at the club next season for the coach to solve the riddle? Only time will tell.
Of his established starters Hardwick does not yet have all the answers, but has learned plenty.
The Suns blooded five debutants this season. Two of those, Clohesy and Will Graham, made an immediate impact.
Clohesy at one stage was in the All-Australian conversation, rated among the top three wingers in the AFL after a blistering breakout month of football.
The rookie draftee has taken to Hardwick’s system like a duck to water and looks a likely weapon on the wing for years to come.
Graham was the unheralded fourth-of-four Suns Academy draftees last November, taken behind Jed Walter, Ethan Read and Jake Rogers. But of those he has had the most impact in his debut season.
He looks a likely 200-game player and it speaks volumes that the coaching staff was willing to throw him into the midfield from the get-go.
Jed Walter was expected to explode onto the AFL scene but his debut season has not quite lived up to the hype.
The coaching staff have gone to work on his key forward craft and with another pre-season under his belt, will be better poised in 2025.
Bodhi Uwland might be the best story to come out of the season for the Suns.
He missed all of 2022 with stress fractures in his back and featured just three times in 2023. This year, it would be a shock if he does not feature near the pointy end of the club’s best and fairest count.
He is now a plug-and-play lockdown defender capable of batting well above his stature, with an intercept marking game belied by his 188cm frame.
Uwland stands 1cm taller than Nick Vlastuin and could grow into that sort of player for Hardwick over the next decade.
The young Sun believes all the moves made by the coaching staff this season will hold them in good stead for a September tilt in 2025.
“If you compare this year to last I think we’re playing a lot better footy even though the win-loss record doesn’t suggest that,” Uwland told this masthead.
“Especially over the last 10 weeks, I think our system has held up well and kept us in games – we just haven’t been able to win ugly and take the most of our chances, like we were able to do against the Bombers.”
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