Suns shine in a drought-breaking victory

Gold Coast have snapped a seven game winless streak and did it in style with an impressive 10-goal victory

Ben Ainsworth was almost unstoppable for the Suns Picture: Getty Images

Gold Coast have snapped a seven game winless streak and did it in style with an impressive 10-goal victory over a forlorn North Melbourne at Metricon Stadium on Sunday night.

It was the Suns’ first win since defeating Sydney in round seven and ended a run of six losses and a draw.

It was also the club’s fourth biggest ever win. The victory also puts the club within striking distance of either equalling or bettering their best ever finishing position, which was 12th in 2014 when they won 10 games.

They sit in 13th spot, just half a game adrift of Carlton which have a slightly superior percentage.

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However, climbing as high as 12th will be challenging with matches against Brisbane, Collingwood and Hawthorn to close out the season.

As for North Melbourne, they failed to score a goal in the second half and the season’s end can not come quick enough.

They sit in 17th spot with just three wins.

Rising star Izak Rankine set the scene early with five score involvements in the first quarter.

Besides slotting the fourth goal of the match, the 20-year-old set-up full forward Max King for an opening quarter major while delivering a perfectly weighted pass into space for Josh Corbett to mark just 15m out.

Corbett may have failed to capitalise on Rankine’s deft work but his influence was telling and midway through the term North Melbourne coach Rhys Shaw gave Marley Williams the job of minding the creative small forward after he proved too much of a handful for Luke McDonald.

Williams made his presence known, often niggling the young Sun off the ball and his tactics had some effect with Rankine finishing with just four more score involvements for the match.

If Rankine wasn’t impressive enough, small forward Ben Ainsworth took it to another level. He had nine score involvements from nine disposals in the first half and by the time the curtain came down that increased to 15 and 23 respectively.

Ainsworth is a thinker on the field although if he does have a weakness in that he misses the gettable shots at goal while nailing the impossible.

The match may not have been much of a spectacle for North Melbourne fans but it did signal the return of recruit Aaron Hall and strong marking forward Majak Daw after the pair were demoted for two games.

Hall played with intensity, applying some crunching tackles, chasing pressure and even landed a goal in the second quarter. He did enough to retain his place against Port Adelaide at Metricon Stadium next Saturday.

He was one of the Roos’ better players although Daw looked out of sorts. He finished with just one mark, two kicks and seven handballs.

NCA Newswire