Rodney Eade deserves a contract extension, the Sun’s lazy players should be under the microscope

TOO many Suns players are playing lazy, unaccountable, one-way football. The heat should be on them, not Rodney Eade, writes Greg Davis.

Rodney Eade of the Gold Coast Suns at 3/4 time during the round 8 match between the Gold Coast Suns and Port Adelaide Power at Jiangwan Stadium in Shanghai, China, Sunday, May 14, 2017. (AAP Image/Tracey Nearmy) NO ARCHIVING, EDITORIAL ONLY

GOLD Coast senior coach Rodney Eade is under the pump.

But Rocket was sold a pup.

Since the day he took charge at Carrara, Eade has been dogged by a devastating spate of injuries and had to overcome significant cultural and behavioural issues within the playing group.

There were more skeletons in closets than a Halloween costume shop when he first put his feet under his desk in a modest demountable building that was the football department’s “office’’.

Not to mention having to reprogram the playing list and teach them the requirements for modern day football after they had been told for years that they just had to get bigger and stronger and everything would be all right.

How much does one man have to endure? The Suns players deserve a rocket, not the coach. @cmail_sport @superfooty https://t.co/WG7TNu0nz0 pic.twitter.com/zpipQCYHO9

— Greg Davis (@GregDavis_cmail) June 2, 2017

Eade has had to spend the first two and a half years of his tenure on the tourist strip cleaning up mess after mess.

So he should not be put under the microscope. He should be given a one-year extension, at least.

If the players don’t aim up in the second half of the season, there should be a clean-out of the list, not the coaching department.

Too many Suns players are playing lazy, unaccountable, one-way football. The heat should be on them, not Rocket.

But in footy, the buck always stops with the coach, not overpaid and overrated players.

When Guy McKenna was shown the door at the end of 2014, the long list of candidates to replace him would have been enticed by the exciting young squad that looked on track for the finals before Gary Ablett hurt his shoulder.

A shiny new playing venue and a state-of-the-art training and administration base in the works made the Suns coaching job one to die for.

But then a series of events started to kill Eade’s hopes and dreams such as:

Rodney Eade of the Gold Coast Suns

· Jaeger O’Meara does his knee in a NEAFL practice game at Coorparoo and NEVER plays a game under Eade in two years.

· After playing most of his glittering career injury-free, Ablett is struck down by knee and shoulder issues.

· The will-he-stay or will-he-go questions about Ablett and a move back to Geelong.

· The questions over Ablett’s captaincy.

· Michael Rischitelli stands tall as a leader on and off the field then requires a knee reconstruction.

· Harley Bennell’s off-field behaviour drags the club through the mud and is traded.

· Two players — Charlie Dixon and Jack Martin — are stood down for drinking the night BEFORE a game.

· David Swallow barely plays a game due to a serious knee injury. Dion Prestia also gets hurt ensuring Eade never coaches the dream midfield containing Ablett, Swallow, O’Meara and Prestia at the same time.

Amidst all that drama, Rocket even had the good humour to pose for a newspaper photo holding a giant fish.

Gold Coast Suns coach Rodney Eade. Picture: Scott Fletcher

How much does one man have to endure?

Rocket looked flat and dejected in the post-match press conference after the Suns surrendered a handsome lead in Alice Springs and got steamrolled by the Demons.

It followed a terrible effort against Port in China.

It’s time for the Suns players as a unit to stand up and deliver for their coach, their club and their supporters.

If Rocket gets the chop, they will have his blood on their hands.

And the list of suitors for the job this time around may not be as long or as luminous.

And they will only have themselves to blame.