Peter V’landys takes aim at the AFL after Gill McLachlan’s claims suggesting Queensland will soon become an ‘AFL state’

Gill McLachlan can call Queensland an ‘AFL state’ but the fact is the league has sunk hundreds of millions of dollars into the Suns for no finals appearances – an irony not lost on Peter V’landys.

Gillon McLachlan is still trying to make the Gold Coast work. Picture: Getty Images

Ben King is the poster boy of the hapless Gold Coast Suns.

A key forward on a monster contract topped up by a contentious and undisclosed AFL “ambassadorial” arrangement paid outside the salary cap.

He’s managed by Connors Sports, the same powerful player agency that just happens to represent former Richmond coach Damien Hardwick.

More than a few have wondered in recent days whether Stuart Dew’s final act as Gold Coast coach – substituting King out of the game against Port Adelaide two weeks ago – was a not-so-subtle message to those plotting to remove him.

Hardwick’s name probably did not come up specifically at that hastily convened Gold Coast board meeting last Monday night where Dew was sacked. But it didn’t have to.

There’s a broad understanding at the Suns that the three-time premiership coach is keen to come.

Some even believe the great Dustin Martin could yet be tempted to follow him to finish his extraordinary career on the Queensland Glitter Strip.

The Suns’ easy win over St Kilda on Saturday demonstrated why Dew’s enemies were so keen to fast-track his execution after the Port Adelaide loss.

Stuart Dew was sacked as Gold Coast coach earlier this month. Picture: Getty Images

The internal report presented to the Gold Coast board had been quickly cobbled together and came as those in the Dew camp were raising their own concerns about issues in an increasingly dysfunctional football department overseen by Wayne Campbell.

It was “kill or be killed”, as one insider said.

Eyebrows were also raised when AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan gave a rousing endorsement of the club’s decision to sack Dew on Friday.

“They have made a decision that feels like a club that’s decided to grow up in my view,” McLachlan declared on 3AW.

It was a distasteful seal of approval for the botched treatment of Dew, who was sacked just days after Suns’ chief executive Mark Evans publicly suggested he may even be in line for a contract extension.

If anything, Dew’s laughably mishandled axing showed that the Suns and its senior management still have a lot of growing up to do.

But for McLachlan – a key figure in the AFL’s decision to set up an expansion club on the Gold Coast during the reign of Mike Fitzpatrick and Andrew Demetriou – the Suns have represented a constant drag on his legacy.

Hundreds of millions of AFL dollars – and an avalanche of draft and list concessions – have been pumped into the club since its inception without a single finals appearance.

Damien Hardwick is a key coaching target for the Gold Coast Suns. Picture: Michael Klein

On Friday, McLachlan talked up those much vaunted local “participation” numbers, suggesting Queensland would soon become “an AFL state”, surpassing the NRL.

But as Australian Rugby League Commission supremo Peter V’landys said on Monday: “They must be counting arms and legs and any other appendages. But I admire how they don’t get dizzy from all the spin.”

Keeping King and luring Hardwick – and maybe Martin – to the Suns would go a long way to rectifying one of the biggest blights on McLachlan’s watch.

The Suns will be eager to give the impression that they are running a process to identify Dew’s replacement, but in truth they are all-in on Hardwick, whom they hope will take them to the promised land as Leigh Matthews did for the Brisbane Lions all those years ago.

But it was Matthews himself who raised concerns at the weekend about the conduct of some Suns officials in the lead up to the Dew sacking.

“If I was going into that football club, like Damien Hardwick, I’d be saying, ‘Hey, are these people trustworthy or will they be blabber mouths if they choose to be?

“As a principle … what has gone on over the last two weeks is bad vibes for the Suns.”