Gary Buckenara takes a close look at Gold Coast’s list after another disappointing season
Gold Coast will always struggle to retain its young stars and rival clubs are already working on a shopping list for next year. Gary Buckenara rates the Suns’ list.
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The words broken record come to mind when talking about the Gold Coast.
It seems to be the same story, year in, year out with the expansion club that has never really got off the ground.
I have my doubts if they will ever be successful in that region.
The AFL will never desert the Gold Coast unless it comes down to a critical finance situation and the Covid pandemic will certainly have hit the league finances very hard.
But can the game afford to continue to spend millions of dollars every year supporting a club like Gold Coast?
Even with the self-proclaimed football guru in Mark Evans at the helm of the club, it will be hard to ever see them building a long-lasting legacy on the field with a team that could regularly play finals and possibly challenge for a premiership one day.
Suns coach Stuart Dew is a great football person and I hope he can have some success.
Despite Touk Miller’s brilliant year, the club has no A-graders and 11 B-graders on the list, it makes it very hard for Dew.
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Having said that, the 13 future AB-ranked players such as the smooth Jack Lukosius and emerging bull Matt Rowell, who both could be potential A graders, is exciting and if they can keep them at the club, then maybe there is some hope for the future.
So far, history has been against this happening although there are some good signs with some of them extending their tenure for a year or two.
I do sound like a knocker of the Suns but, in my opinion, the Gold Coast area will take years of draining the AFL and football finances.
I would like Gillon McLachlan to come out and tell us what the AFL spends on keeping Gold Coast propped up financially each year.
I hope I am wrong but the millions being poured into the club every year is not translating to a successful club where 40,000 people turn up week in, week out, selling out memberships, sponsorships and merchandise.
These are all areas clubs need to excel in just to break even in today’s football industry and the Suns don’t even go close – and I doubt they ever will.
I feel for Dew and his group because this is not a great environment to try and build and develop a list of players.
It is a non-sport loving culture on the Gold Coast and people are more interested in lifestyle and recreational pursuits than sporting clubs.
TRADE TARGETS
Shoot for the stars. Why not throw a massive offer at Jordan De Goey? He’d be a huge marquee signing. Why not pitch the chance to be part of what could be a special young group with Matt Rowell, Izak Rankine and Ben King.
It is time for the Suns to start targeting some A and B-plus types rather than the B and C-grade players of the past.
But the same problem exists – who wants to go there?
UNTOUCHABLES
Unfortunately, it is the same issue we see happening with the Suns. The club would consider most of their better young players as untouchables but time sees these younger players wanting to return to an AFL football state.
This does make it extremely difficult to plan and develop a list of players that stays together and I fear this will always be the same problem the Suns will face.
TRADE BAIT
There will be suitors everywhere for the club’s younger players and it has become a feeding frenzy for rival clubs and player managers shopping around their players to get out of the Gold Coast.
But how does this help them? It is a cycle that continues and the issue is that they will not attract big name free agents or entice other players through the trade period as they are not a destination club that can get into the game to win the service of star free agents or out of contract stars.
Managers will definitely field offers from the Gold Coast but this will be only to lift the price for the players current club to pay to stay.
WHAT THE RATINGS MEAN
List management is one of the most important jobs at an AFL club.
Poor decisions can be catastrophic — and Collingwood proved that last year.
Far too many clubs can often hold an overly-optimistic view when ranking their own lists and this can lead to years of mediocrity and has Carlton done this recently?
When clubs are rating their lists, they should rank players as: A+, A, B+, B, C+, C and Development.
In this list analysis, I have just done A, B, C and two tiers of development (“future AB players” and “need more time”) because with the younger players it is important to see who is coming through and those that need more time.
The important area for clubs to look at is how many A and B ranked players they have as well as future consistent AB players.
These rankings are my opinions, but they should give supporters a reasonable snapshot as to where their playing list sits now — and how they might look in a few years’ time.
Players 22 and over
A-grade: Elite players on any AFL list
B: Top 10-18 player on most lists
C: An 19-30 player on a list
Developing: Aged 21 or under
Future AB players: These are players that will hopefully develop into an A or B ranked player once they turn 22. They might be playing to this level now, but it takes sustained years.
Need more time: These players would be a player recently drafted that is still developing and therefore will need more time to see if he is likely to develop into an A or B grade player.
RATING THE LIST
A-grade: None.
B-grade: Hugh Greenwood, Jack Bowes, Jarrod Harbrow, Alex Sexton, Will Brodie, Touk Miller, Josh Corbett, David Swallow, Sam Collins, Jarrod Witts, Darcy Macpherson.
C-grade: Rory Atkins, Brandon Ellis, Brayden Fiorini, Ben Ainsworth, Sam Day, Lachie Weller, Rory Thompson, Oleg Markov, Jack Hombsch (retired), Jacob Townsend, Sean Lemmens, Chris Burgess, Jordan Murdoch (retired), Zac Smith (retired), Nick Holman, Jy Farrar.
DEVELOPING
Future AB players: Charlie Ballard, Jack Lukosius, Noah Anderson, Matt Rowell, Izak Rankine, Sam Flanders, Wil Powell, Ben King, Connor Budarick, Elijah Hollands, Jeremy Sharp, Joel Jeffrey, Jez McLennan,
Need more time: Alex Davies, Aiden Fyfe, Rhys Nicholls, Malcolm Rosas, Patrick Murtagh, Luke Towey, Caleb Graham, Hewago Paul Oea, Matt Conroy, Ned Moyle.
LIST BREAKDOWN
A Grade = 0
B Grade = 11
C Grade = 16
DEVELOPING
Future AB players: = 13
Need more time: = 10
CRYSTAL BALL
No A-graders and 11 B-graders tells the story as to why the Suns have inconsistent performances far too often. Simply, they have far too many C-graders and development players to be a consistent team week in, week out.
Until some of those exciting future AB players are 22 and become A graders – and still at the club – then it is always going to be hard for the Suns to improve.
That has been the biggest issue, keeping these players in the past when they come out of contract. I hope they can as it is the only hope for the club to be able to have some success and play finals one day.
Most of the players come from football states and you can’t blame them for wanting to return to their home states, or to go to one where the AFL is strong and supported and the football environment is one that will bring out the best in them.
There are plenty of challenges ahead for the Gold Coast Suns and unfortunately I cannot ever see long-term, sustained success on or off the field in this environment.
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