Gold Coast Suns star Noah Anderson ‘excited’ to take on brilliant Brisbane midfield
Despite the absence of talisman Touk Miller, the Gold Coast Suns are confident of a bold midfield showing against the Brisbane Lions.
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Emerging Gold Coast star Noah Anderson is confident that even without the injured Touk Miller, the Suns can take down the AFL’s midfield “standard” bearers in Saturday night’s QClash at the Gabba.
The engine-room battle is set to prove crucial in the Suns’ bid to end a run of eight straight losses to the Brisbane Lions.
“Brisbane will be a great test for our group,” Anderson told SEN’s Pat and Healsshow.
“If we bring the right attitude and our game plan, the result will take care of itself.
“We’re going to back ourselves in that our game plan’s going to work.”
Many doubted the Suns could recover after losing talisman and midfield general Miller to a serious knee injury.
But in Miller’s absence, Anderson and fellow young gun Matt Rowell have stepped up in a big way.
“It’s a real growing point for us a group,” Anderson said.
“In the past … if we lost a few of our top players, then we might have struggled a little bit, but it’s a real reflection of where the group’s at that we’ve lost Touk … and we’ve still provided good results.”
Anderson was looking forward to testing himself against a Lions midfield which included superstar Lachie Neale, prized off-season recruits Josh Dunkley and Will Ashcroft, Hugh McCluggage and Jarrod Berry.
“They’re probably the standard for the league at the moment,” he said.
“For our relatively young midfield group, it will be a great test, but we’re also excited to play and test ourselves against the best.”
Lions coach Chris Fagan said he wasn’t surprised Anderson and Rowell had lifted in Miller’s absence.
“That often happens when young blokes are given a little more responsibility,” Fagan said.
“When I saw Touk get injured, I wondered if that would be the case and that’s proven to be.
“Rowell and Anderson are just great players at getting their hands on the ball first. That’s the big challenge this week.
“We’ve got a pretty good midfield, too. It’ll be a great challenge for us and a great challenge for them.
“Our guys are natural competitors in the midfield, so they’ll want to do well in there.”
Anderson said there was great “belief” in the Gold Coast camp that the Suns, who have won three of their past four matches, can not only beat the Lions in the Sir Doug Nicholls Round, but also reach the finals for the first time in the club’s history.
“The start of the year didn’t go the way we would have wanted it to, but we made a few little tweaks and changes and feel like we’ve had a pretty consistent past four or five weeks,” the second pick in the 2019 AFL draft said.
“The belief’s definitely there and it was there heading into this year. We really feel like we can win any game we go into.”
Originally published as Gold Coast Suns star Noah Anderson ‘excited’ to take on brilliant Brisbane midfield
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