Gold Coast defender Sam Collins opens up on the club missing finals again in 2024

Another year without finals beckons for the Gold Coast Suns — but according to their vice-captain, this time a failure to reach the top eight is different. CALLUM DICK explains why.

PERTH, AUSTRALIA – AUG 03: The Suns leave the field after the teams defeat during the 2024 AFL Round 21 match between the West Coast Eagles and the Gold Coast SUNS at Optus Stadium on August 03, 2024 in Perth, Australia. (Photo by Will Russell/AFL Photos via Getty Images)

It is that time of year, Gold Coast fans.

Early August, when the polish on a promising season comes off and talk shifts to playing for pride and beating the fabled 10-win season benchmark.

Friday night’s 10-point loss to West Coast was the final nail in the September coffin. With a minimum of 13 wins required to play finals and the Suns stuck on nine with three games to go, the equation is now impossible.

“It’s certainly not another season like the past. This one is different,” declared vice-captain Sam Collins on Tuesday.

“Absolutely it is just as disappointing as seasons gone by but internally we know we’re doing a lot right. Unfortunately, we haven’t been able to clinch some crucial wins throughout the season and we find ourselves in this position … but we have the chance to have the best winning season the Suns have ever had.”

Will Graham and Bailey Humphrey after Gold Coast’s loss to West Coast. Picture: Will Russell/AFL Photos via Getty Images

The “best winning season the Suns have ever had”, as Collins put it, has never been a winning season. Twice the club has finished on 10 wins, never enough to end the home and away campaign inside the top eight.

A little over two months ago, the Suns knocked off Essendon by 11 points at People First Stadium and moved to 7-5. Despite having not won a game on the road, they had winnable away days against St Kilda, North Melbourne and West Coast on the horizon.

Instead, they are 2-6 since the win over the Bombers and those gettable games ended in defeat.

The club has made a habit in recent years of limping to the finish line.

Last season the Suns were 7-7 at the end of round 15, but won just two of their final nine games. In 2022 and 2021, they won just three of their final nine games.

“I’m sure externally it does look the same but internally we have some key metrics … and to be honest, those metrics have us right up there with some of the best teams in the competition,” Collins said.

“Internally we’ve got the belief that when we play our best football it stacks up, but unfortunately we haven’t been able to do that consistently enough.

“Everything says we’re going all right – the ladder doesn’t. Unfortunately we’re held to account by the outcome, but we know internally our process is delivering.”

There have been some impressive performances from the Suns this season. The thumping of Geelong in Darwin and edging out an in-form Collingwood and Port Adelaide at home at the top of the list.

But with one of the softest – albeit travel-heavy – draws in the AFL, the Suns of 2024 look to have let an opportunity slip through their fingers.

Collins declared the list were good enough to play finals this season.

“We’ve fallen short of that. It’s disappointing.”

But the key defender, who is in the All-Australian conversation after a stellar individual season, says the club should have no regrets about putting finals on the agenda at the beginning of the year.

“To expect finals is the aim of every football club and I think that’s a fair expectation to have regardless of what’s gone on at our club in the past,” Collins said.

“The expectation is always to play finals and to have that out there early in the piece, yeah it puts us on the hook and it’s disappointing we haven’t achieved that this year, but if the club’s not asking for finals then it’s not going to be a successful club.”