West Coast vs Gold Coast: Suns smash Eagles on the road

Gold Coast could hardly win a game on the road in 2024, but have started 2025 by smashing a hapless West Coast in Perth. Have the Eagles got worse in the off-season?

Oscar Allen and Harley Reid walk off at half time. Picture: Paul Kane/Getty Images.

Forget that Sunday’s 87-point win over West Coast was Gold Coast’s biggest ever, Suns coach Damien Hardwick would just be happy to take the round 1 victory on the road.

It doesn’t even matter that it was against a side whose expectations for this season are pretty low.

The Suns matched the top sides for home wins last season, with nine. No team had more.

But they missed playing finals for the first time ever by just two wins. They finished 13th.

The Sun won only two games on the road.

Four of Gold Coast’s away losses were to teams that also didn’t play finals, to the Eagles (10 points) and Fremantle (20), in Perth and to North Melbourne (four) and St Kilda (three), at Marvel Stadium.

So, they’ve made a good start in 2025 to make amends.

Hardwick would be more than happy just to have Sunday’s 20.16 (136) to 7.7 (49) victory over the Eagles in the bank.

Ben King takes to the SKY!!!

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— Fox Footy (@FOXFOOTY) March 16, 2025

IT WAS A GOOD WIN THOUGH

Gold Coast did look impressive though, handing Andrew McQualter a disappointing start to his senior coaching career.

Trailing by 45 points at half-time would have disappointed him. But the way they let the Suns go about it would have hurt him more.

Jarrod Witts competes with Matt Flynn in the ruck. Picture: Daniel Carson/AFL Photos via Getty Images.

The Suns smashed West Coast in clearances, leading that stat 28-11 by the main break. The game flowed towards Gold Coast’s goals from there.

They had 37 inside 50 entries in the first two quarters, to the Eagles 14 and had 10 more scoring shots.

If the Suns midfield stays fit, they are going to cause plenty of teams problems this year, regardless of where they play.

Jarrod Witts, Noah Anderson, Matt Rowell and Touk Miller were the dominant players on the ground.

Ben King also looked dangerous, kicking a career-high six goals to lead the Coleman Medal after round 1. He might also be in early contention for mark of the year after standing on the head of West Coast defender Harry Edwards in the third term.

MIDFIELD DOMINANCE

That Suns midfield trio of Anderson, Rowell and Miller had 92 possessions between them for the game. Anderson topped the list with 36.

They were the top three ball winners on the ground. They smashed the Eagles in clearances and contested possession.

Matt Rowell was dominant for the Suns in the midfield. Picture: Daniel Carson/AFL Photos via Getty Images.

Former Richmond defender Daniel Rioli, in his first game in Suns colours, also had 21, and kicked two goals.

The Eagles mids couldn’t get their hands on the ball.

The Eagles own ex-Tigers, Jack Graham (23 touches) and Liam Baker (21), would have won fans over in their first game for the club.

But important West Coast ball carriers, Tim Kelly and Harley Reid mustered just 26 between them.

Oscar Allen and Harley Reid walk off at half time. Picture: Paul Kane/Getty Images.

INJURIES ARE A CURSE

While the Suns backline had a pretty easy day, the loss of Charlie Ballard to a knee injury is a concern for them going forward.

It was such a strange incident too.

Ballard jarred his knee while landing after taking an uncontested mark just before half-time.

He was subbed out, bringing Alex Sexton into the game.

Ballard was playing on Eagles key forward, Oscar Allen, who had kicked one goal from 55m out, in the opening term.

Allen managed just one more goal.

But the Eagles forward line was also hit by injury, with Jake Waterman also forced to the bench with injury, subbed from the game in the third term with a calf concern.

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