Former Gold Coast Suns big man Daniel Gorringe recalls horror drink

He could barely get the words out of his mouth, but a former Sun has recalled a revolting story from his time at the AFL battlers.

Daniel Gorringe had an almighty struggle trying to recall the revolting story. Photos: Instagram

The Gold Coast Suns have battled away near the bottom of the ladder throughout their short AFL existence.

Now former ruckman Daniel Gorringe may just have given a stomach-turning insight into why.

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Granted entry to the league as an expansion side in 2011, the Suns were given a raft of draft and list concessions, but have never finished higher than 12th across their 13 seasons, a position they have achieved twice.

Those two seasons, coming in 2014 and 2022, are also the only times the club has reached double-figure wins in a single campaign.

Daniel Gorringe (right) training alongside Michael Rischitelli and Gary Ablett Jr.

Despite having a number of star players on its list, headlined by 2013 Brownlow Medallist Gary Ablett Jr, the club is yet to achieve any level of success.

Gorringe was part of the team from that debut 2011 season through 2015, playing just 22 games for the Suns and four more for Carlton in a career ruined by a series of injuries.

Now a media performer, Gorringe is a former Big Brother runner-up and also has a tattoo of former Sun coach Stuart Dew on his left buttock after losing a bet, so he doesn’t take himself too seriously.

The 31-year-old also has a podcast titled Dan Does Footy, which is described as “footy not delivered by fossils, have a laugh, it’s not that serious”.

He took to the show this week to disclose a disgusting episode the playing group experienced during his time on the Goldy.

“Protein slushies at the Suns,” Gorringe begins, innocently enough. “We go into the changerooms and we have these protein slushy machines and inside it is protein.

“There’s no shaking, there’s no admin, pour yourself a protein slushy and away you go.

“Gets about a month down the road and we pull some out and we’re like ‘oh jeez, this protein is starting to taste a bit different than it did before’.

Daniel Gorringe had an almighty struggle trying to recall the revolting story. Photos: Instagram

“Pretty sure it (used to) taste a lot better.”

From this point, to give you a full picture of how difficult Gorringe found it to recall this story roughly a decade later, we’ve added the pauses into his comments where he had to retch.

Someone at the club did eventually investigate the issue, keeping in mind this is about a month after the team had been using the machine.

“She goes to the protein machine and pulls out (retch) the back of the protein machine and the back of the (retch), the back of the machine (retch), the back of the (retch),” Gorringe says, determined to get through the story.

“Take your time, take your time,” his co-host Ollie Geale says kindly.

“I got it,” Gorringe insists. “The back of the protein machine is full of mag (very big retch), is full of maggots.

“Oh f**k. S**t. The back of the machine is full of maggots.

Gorringe at Celebrity Ink at Surfers Paradise after losing a bet. Photo: Richard Gosling

The tattoo of former Suns coach, Stuart Dew. Photo: Richard Gosling

“And blokes were pulling on this protein machine and just having a mix of like maggot juice and protein (one last retch).”

If you’ve made it this far, well done.

Some of the comments on social media only added to the hideous story, led by Gorringe’s caption on Instagram.

“These protein shakes sent us back 10 years as a club,” he wrote.

“Honestly sounds delicious,” was one reply.

“It was the latest in sports science,” suggested another.

“This explains … a lot about the suns,” added a third.

The clip has also been posted on TikTok, where to its credit, the Suns’ official account played along by adding a comment.

“Can confirm slushy machine is now regularly cleaned,” they wrote.

“WHY WAS IT NOT BEFORE!!?” was a very fair response and a justified use of all caps.

“No wonder you have never made finals,” wrote another.

We’ll leave the last comment to one more social media user, who was taken aback by Gorringe’s issues retelling the story.

“How soft is this fella gagging trying to tell a story,” they wrote. “Teaspoon of concrete champ.”