AFL 2021: Latest Gold Coast Suns news and analysis after disappointing campaign

First there was Luke Hodge to Brisbane. Now Gold Coast has been urged to make a shock play for two Magpies, including Scott Pendlebury.

Nick Riewoldt and Tony Cochrane have butted heads over Tasmania’s AFL bid.

Hawthorn great Jordan Lewis has suggested the struggling Gold Coast Suns should target several experienced players from one team such as Collingwood’s Scott Pendlebury and Steele Sidebottom to “help set the culture” at the club.

As the spotlight on the 16th placed Suns intensifies ahead of this week’s clash against the bottom placed North Melbourne, Lewis said the Suns needed experienced players over money and draft picks.

Lewis revealed he had flirted with the idea of joining the Suns when he left Hawthorn to join Melbourne at the end of 2016.

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INSIDE STORY: BOOZY NIGHT WHICH EXPOSED SUNS’ PROBLEMS

The four-time premiership player said a recruiting raid on a group headlined by the likes of Collingwood premiership duo Pendlebury and Sidebottom could be a win-win for the Suns and Magpies, who could prosper from some high draft picks in return.

“Do you look at a Pendlebury, at a Sidebottom, at another Collingwood player and say ‘Hey, if they want to move clubs, whatever it may be’ but Collingwood at the other end get high draft picks is that a viable option?,’ Lewis said on AFL 360.

“Because it’s exactly what Gold Coast need and it’s exactly what Collingwood or Geelong or whoever it might be need.

“It’s to set the culture. These players you are talking about have two, maybe three years left to play. They are not one year left on their career. These are players that could really help build these young guys up, give them confidence.

“If you said to a group of three players ‘Hey, if we can get you all together, we might get assistance somewhere’, that might be more appealing than getting one from here, one from there, one in a couple of years.

“It may be the answer if it could potentially happen.”

Jordan Lewis says Gold Coast should chase an experienced player such as Scott Pendlebury.

Lewis said it was a recruiting plot the Suns, whose coach Stuart Dew was a part of Hawthorn’s 2008 premiership team, should have attempted with a group of veteran Hawks.

“Yeah I did (consider joining the Suns). Not that I didn’t like my time at Melbourne but looking at the Gold Coast and looking at the Gold Coast and looking at Stuart Dew and being a mate of ours, if I had my time again maybe you would have entertained the idea a bit more seriously,” Lewis said.

“It’s exactly what (Suns chairman) Tony (Cochrane) was saying the other night, they don’t need money, they don’t need draft picks, they need experienced players and players I think who came from a really good culture.

“I was given the option to move out … ‘Roughy’ (Jarryd Roughead) was coming to the end of his career, ‘Hodgey’ (Luke Hodge) was on the way out.

“If you’d approached the club and asked the question, you don’t know what they would have said because you would have got high-draft picks in return which you wouldn’t have got anywhere else, at any other club.

“Having the time again, say if you could have got myself, Shaun (Burgoyne), Roughy, Hodgey, maybe four players with experience up there to try and mould them and teach them how to win, teach them how to train, create really good habits, it’s exactly what they need now.”

Asked if the possibility of a group of the veteran Hawks joining the Suns had been put to him, Roughead said: “No, but Dewy had tried to get a few of us at different times and I’m pretty sure when Jordan was entertaining Melbourne Gold Coast were another side that were probably interested back then as well,” Roughead said.

“So it wasn’t as if they came trying to get everyone at once but they definitely asked the question of getting individuals up there at certain points in time.”

FIERY STOUSH ERUPTS OVER TASSIE AFL BID

Sam Landsberger

Several AFL presidents would oppose the AFL delivering Tasmania the competition’s 19th license in the next five years, according to outspoken Gold Coast chairman Tony Cochrane.

Proud Tasmanian Nick Riewoldt and Cochrane sparred on Fox Footy’s On the Couch on Monday night after Cochrane repeated his claims that Tasmania did not belong in the AFL in the foreseeable future.

Riewoldt was not impressed when Cochrane delivered a sideswipe at Tasmania’s AFL Taskforce chief Brett Godfrey and told Cochrane it was incumbent on him to read the 368 page report before commenting.

“It was written by a bloke (Godfrey) who chaired it for three weeks after handing in the report went and joined the board of Australian Rugby Union. I’m not sure that’s kind of the dedication we want in AFL circles,” Cochrane said.

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Nick Riewoldt wasn’t impressed by Tony Cochrane’s swipe at Tasmania’s AFL Taskforce chief. Picture: Quinn Rooney/Getty Images

“The AFL as an industry cannot afford a 19th franchise. I don’t care whether that’s a franchise in Timbuktu, Tailem Bend or Tasmania.

“That is my point.”

Cochrane’s immediate and frank dismissal of the Tassie bid drew widespread fury and he said he held a 90-minute Zoom meeting with Colin Carter to review those remarks.

Can not understand the resistance from your average footy fan to a Tasmanian team. Grassroots Aussie rules state. Produced 4 of best 15-20 players all time. Hart, Hudson, Stewart and Baldock. Always batted above.

— Matthew Richardson (@mattricho0) June 20, 2021

Former Geelong chairman Carter was appointed by the AFL to review the business case for a Tasmanian club.

Cochrane said he was entitled to voice his opinion despite the admission he had not read the 368-page document.

Tony Cochrane says a 19th team is not feasible. Picture: AAP Image/Dave Hunt

Coachrane’s dismissal of Tasmania’s bid drew widespread fury. Picture: Zak Simmonds

“I do come with a fairly large business brain when it comes to sport,” he said.

“That’s been the way I’ve tried to make a quid for 45 years.

“I just do not believe that anybody can convince me personally, and I happen to know many other presidents as well (who would expose expansion in the next three to five years).”

North Melbourne champion David King called for the AFL to fold the Suns and hand their licence to Tasmania.

“You don’t relocate, you shut it down and you start a Tassie team and you give them their own franchise and let it grow from within and get all the people attached,” King said on Fox Footy. “We are not ­getting that up north.”

The Suns play North Melbourne in Tasmania this week however Cochrane said he did not have Covid clearance to board the club’s chartered flight.

Originally published as AFL 2021: Latest Gold Coast Suns news and analysis after disappointing campaign