AFL 2019 | Club presidents and legends baffled by Suns assistance package handout

The Gold Coast Suns have been handed a juicy assistance package from the AFL but legends and stakeholders have queried the elephant still in the room.

The Gold Coast Suns have copped it again.

The Gold Coast Suns have been handed a huge assistance package by the AFL after a disastrous wooden spoon season in 2018.

The side haven’t won since a two-point win over Carlton in round four with 18 straight losses to finish the season, one of their two wins this year.

The AFL hit the panic button, handing the Suns the second pick for the 2019 AFL Draft to go along with their first pick.

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They will also get the first pick in the second round (pick No. 20) and a mid-first round pick next year (currently pick No. 11) as well as the first pick of the second round in the 2021 Draft (currently pick No. 19).

The Sun have also had their rookie list expanded to 10 spots and have been granted academy access to Darwin.

AFL general counsel Andrew Dillon admitted in a statement the AFL has had “enormous challenges” in establishing the team in rugby league heartland.

“There is no doubt the Gold Coast Suns have had enormous challenges throughout their short history and it is to the benefit of the entire competition that the Suns are competitive,” Dillon said.

Suns CEO Mark Evans said the club’s focus from the assistance package is a “long-term” roster rebuild.

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The Suns need to work out how to keep a group together for some time.

But the response from AFL stakeholders has been swift with some feeling it’s unfair and others believing it’s not enough.

Speaking on Fox Sports’ On The Couch, former Sydney Swans premiership coach Paul Roos said it goes nowhere near far enough.

“That’s four picks over three years — in 2010 (the Draft before the Suns joined the AFL) they had eight picks below 13 and they had seven concession players,” Roos said. “That’s 15 players in one year, so we think we’re going to fix it with four players over three years, we’re kidding ourselves.”

Demons legend Garry Lyon said one of the best things is the addition of the Darwin area.

But AFL great and On the Couch host Healy said the elephant in the room has still yet to be fixed.

“What it doesn’t address is the R-word and that is retention,” he said. “And until they address retention even specifically for one club, we might be back here next year arguing the same thing.

“I don’t think it’s enough, they haven’t given them more salary cap room.”

Lyon said “it’s not about money to retain them”.

“You give him all the money in the world and Tom Lynch wouldn’t have stayed,” he said.

Healy responded: “If you’ve got enough in the salary cap, you can go and get half a dozen senior players and there is the bricks on which the young players will build.”

Lyon agreed and said setting the club up with the building blocks to make the team successful should be outside the salary cap.

Retention is the club’s biggest can of worms with overall No. 2 pick Jack Lukosius and No. 6 pick Ben King in last years’ national draft set to be targets for rival clubs next year.

Fox Footy reporter Tom Morris told the panel that “both Adelaide clubs and St Kilda are absolutely confident they can get those two next year”.

Jack Lukosius celebrated with teammates after his first AFL goal.

On the side that the Suns shouldn’t have received any additional help, Western Bulldogs president Peter Gordon and Hawthorn counterpart Jeff Kennett lashed the decision.

Gordon said the AFL should make the Suns trade their picks for more experienced players, while Kennett wondered aloud whether the Gold Coast should have been established at all.

While fellow expansion club GWS made the grand final for the first time this season, the Suns are yet to make the top eight.

Gordon wants the league to explain how it came up with the package for Gold Coast.

“For me, it would have made more sense to provide those picks but to also oblige the Suns to trade those picks for quality mature and experienced players … which is what they seem to lack and explains why their season tailed off so badly,” Gordon told The Age.

“The steps they’ve taken seem to me to be doing more of the same but expecting a different result.

“You’d hope these matters actually get discussed at commission meetings.”

Kennett is often the most vocal critic of the AFL among the club bosses, and it came as no surprise that he also was unimpressed with the help for Gold Coast.

“It’s a difficult but understandable extension of socialism in our lives,” Kennett said on AFL Trade Radio today.

“The AFL is trying to give the Suns an opportunity to grow, but it’s probably based on a recognition that must call into question whether the Gold Coast should have been established.

“Gold Coast is going to be there for some years to come, but at a cost to the AFL and the other clubs.

“These people who may be selected in the first and second positions of the draft … How do you ensure that they are going to stay at the Gold Coast?

“While I find the assistance understandable … But it discriminates against the other clubs. I’m not sure that it is the answer, because it doesn’t guarantee the players will stay there after the initial two-year contract.”

Doesn’t help that this happens when you leave.

Premiership winning coach Leigh Matthews said the allowances are a massive hit to the hopes of having a team on the Gold Coast.

“It is demoralising for the sport and for the Suns if you want them to be a competitive team, I mean Tom Lynch and Dion Prestia both were at the Suns a few years ago but they decided to go to the big football stadium and the football bubble in Melbourne,” Matthew told Macquarie Sports Radio.

“Whoever comes into the Suns unit, the question is ‘can they keep them for a career?’ That’s the challenge that they’ve got and at this point they’re starting for a really low base.”