Absence of Gold Coast Suns draftee Izak Rankine set to end as he prepares to return from hamstring injury

Suns skipper David Swallow says the likely return of draftee Izak Rankine and other key personnel will provide added class Gold Coast need to deliver a second straight boilover of Sydney and kickstart the back end of their season.

SUNS skipper David Swallow says the likely return of draftee Izak Rankine and other key personnel will provide added class Gold Coast need to deliver a second straight boilover of Sydney and kickstart the back end of their season.

Swallow confirmed Touk Miller and potentially Pearce Hanley were in line to return from injury for Saturday’s Round 15 game against the Swans while exciting no. 3 draft pick Rankine could play his first game of football since injurying his hamstring in a pre-season game against Sydney.

“Touky Miller will be right to go, maybe Pearce Hanley and I think Izak Rankine, which is pretty exciting,” Swallow said.

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“I think he’ll get his first run in the NEAFL. We can’t wait to have (Rankine) back. We only had a small snippet of it but we know he’s got a lot of attributes and can’t wait to have him out there and see what he can do.”

Swallow said the returning players will bolster a team looking to break a nine-game losing run and avoid falling off the map in the second half of the season the way the club has in recent years.

“They probably add that bit of class we’ve been craving the first half of the year,” Swallow said.

“Hopefully we can get these guys back in and they can add that bit of polish.

“We know what Pearce is like with his ball use off halfback and Izak up forward, hopefully we can generate some more scores.”

Izak Rankine of the Suns is tackled by Lachie Neale of the Lions compete for the ball during the AFL pre-season practice match between the Gold Coast Suns and the Brisbane Lions at Metricon Stadium on February 23, 2019 in Gold Coast, Australia. (Photo by Chris Hyde/Getty Images)

Gold Coast produced one of the upsets of the 2018 season when they beat Sydney by 24 points at the SCG in Round 18 last year and with Sydney missing Lance Franklin, the Suns believe they can do it again.

“Certainly that’d be perfect if that eventuates. We know they’re a very proud club and their form is starting to build so we’re expecting a tough contest on Saturday,” Swallow said.

“(Last year’s win) just shows you we’re capable. You can take a bit from it but it’ll be a different game on Saturday but the boys are really confident we can take it up to them.

“(Franklin’s absence) is probably one less person you’ve got to worry about (but) they’ve got Sam Reid and some other good talls.”

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Swallow said their run of losses hadn’t dented the confidence of the playing group as they look to make the most of their run home.

“If anything it’s probably solidified that when we play our brand it does stand up. The boys have got to take belief from what we have been able to achieve,” Swallow said.

“We’d like more wins but we’re probably at a different stage and we’ve got to continue to build our brand.

“(We want) to get the most out of the next nine weeks. We want to win as many games as we can. As much as we’ve been competitive we want to start winning these games and are looking to improve in the back half of the year.

“We’ve probably struggled to put four quarters of real consistent footy together and we know if we can put four quarters together we’re going to be in games. That’s probably our goal at the moment is to put a whole game together.”

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