Gold Coast starting from scratch after list cleanout
GOLD Coast will undertake a complete rebuild as they strive to offload co-captain Steven May to complete the biggest talent exodus in the club’s rocky history.
Gold Coast
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GOLD Coast will undertake a complete rebuild as they strive to offload co-captain Steven May on Wednesday to complete the biggest talent exodus in the club’s rocky history.
Previous coaches and administrations have been criticised for the Suns’ poor player retention record but no single season compares to the major talent drain orchestrated by the club’s new football department of coach Stuart Dew, list manager Craig Cameron and football boss Jon Haines.
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Brisbane is also playing with fire as they give strong consideration to trading out their best player Dayne Beams to Collingwood.
Beams could be part of a five-club deal that sees Docker Lachie Neale land at the Gabba and May find his way to Melbourne.
One official from a rival club warned that if the Lions let Beams walk with two years left on his contract it would “open the gates” for the entire competition to come hard at their swag of quality young players over the next three years.
Gold Coast has made a tactical decision to gut their list and start from scratch and will enter the draft with picks 2, 3, 19, 24, 29 and possibly 5 if a trade with Melbourne for May is successful.
The Suns have already lost their other skipper Tom Lynch to Richmond and gave Aaron Hall away to North Melbourne for pick 68 and former No.7 draft pick Jack Scrimshaw to the Hawks for their future third and fourth round draft picks.
Kade Kolodjashnij, another top 10 draft pick, is set to be traded to Melbourne today, possibly in a package deal with May.
Lynch has played 131 games and won two club championships, May’s numbers are 123 games and a third place, Hall appeared in 103 games and has two top five finishes and Kolodjashnij played 78 games and was second in 2015.
When you add in the retired Matt Rosa (207) and de-listed Michael Barlow (141) close to 800 games of experience will have left the club.
While the Suns were always open to dealing on May, they had refrained from making it official until Tuesday when Cameron confirmed the club and player were happy to explore a trade.
Gold Coast would deal with Melbourne for pick number five if it finds its way to the club via Fremantle they receive it in a monster five way trade.
“He’d be happy to come to Melbourne (city) if something was found,” Cameron said.
“It’s up to the clubs now that are pursuing him to come up with something. At this stage they haven’t.”
The Suns added Geelong fringe player George Horlin-Smith and VFL defender Sam Collins to their list.
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