Gold Coast Suns Academy: The meetings, decisions and key players that shaped a development juggernaut

Damien Hardwick’s Gold Coast revolution has its Academy prospects front and centre, but the former Richmond coach has had plenty of help, with the Suns building a development juggernaut.

MELBOURNE, AUSTRALIA - NOVEMBER 21: (L-R) Will Graham, Ethan Read, Jed Walter and Jake Rogers of the Suns pose for a photograph following the 2023 AFL Draft at Marvel Stadium on November 21, 2023 in Melbourne, Australia. (Photo by Daniel Pockett/Getty Images)

Gold Coast rolled out six of its homegrown Suns Academy products in Damien Hardwick’s starting 22 against the Hawks in Jed Walter, Ethan Read, Will Graham, Sam Clohesy, Malcolm Rosas Jnr and Bodhi Uwland.

They are six of a staggering 14 Suns Academy graduates on the club’s AFL list of 46 players – and Gold Coast wants to push that number even higher.

Among the most prolific of the Northern Academies in terms of translating graduates into AFL players, the Suns have only scratched the surface of what they hope to achieve over the next decade and beyond.

(L-R) Will Graham, Ethan Read, Jed Walter and Jake Rogers from the Suns 2023 draft crop. Picture: Getty Images

Twenty-four Suns Academy graduates have gone on to play at least one AFL game but unlike the Swans, Giants and Lions, who have spat out top-tier talent in the form of Isaac Heeney, Callum Mills, Nick Blakey, Errol Gulden (Swans), Tom Green, Jack Steele, Jacob Hopper (Giants), Harris Andrews, Eric Hipwood and Jack Payne (Lions) to name a few, Gold Coast’s list has historically been light on quality.

Lachie Weller and Jack Bowes are the only products to have eclipsed 100 AFL games. Both first-round draft picks, Weller did not meet the length of residency requirements to qualify as a priority academy selection and thus went to Fremantle with pick No.13 in 2014, while Bowes, now at Geelong, was taken by the Suns at No.10 in 2016.

Transitioning promising academy talent into premiere AFL players had been a slow burn on the Glitter Strip – until last year.

Before last year Jack Bowes (now at Geelong) was the Suns Academy’s top draft product. He was taken with pick No.10 in the 2016 draft. Picture: Getty Images

First-round talents Walter, Read, Graham and Jake Rogers all transitioned directly from the Suns Academy onto the club’s AFL list via the 2023 draft. Suddenly the program was placed under an AFL-wide microscope. But those four players did not fall into the club’s lap by happenstance.

They are the first wave of players who reaped the rewards of a revamped Suns Academy system that has undergone two transformational changes over the past six years – first in 2018 and again in 2021.

If all goes according to plan, the Suns’ crop of 2023 draftees will become the cornerstone on which it builds a premiership-contending list.

So how did it happen?

THE BEGINNING

The first Suns Academy intake occurred in 2011, with roughly 120 boys across Queensland overseen by a single full-time staff member.

In 2017 the Suns Academy welcomed its first crop of 26 female players, taking the total to just over 200 and overseen by two full-time staff – an Academy manager and head coach. In the span of six years the club had expanded its academy program by one full-time staff member and 90 players.

Academy Manager Jason Torney and head coach Andrew Raines worked tirelessly within a network lacking significant resources that relied on volunteers across the state to help deliver the program.

Former Suns Academy head coach Andrew Raines helped build the early foundations for success at the club alongside academy manager Jason Torney (not pictured). Picture: Justin Brierty

At the end of 2018, the Gold Coast board made a submission to the AFL to significantly bolster its academy program. To that point the club’s homegrown talent had mostly arrived via the rookie draft, as the program was not well-equipped to identify, develop and produce top-end AFL-ready talent.

Using the Swans’ highly successful academy model as a blueprint, the Suns made a significant financial and material investment, which as of 2024 sits at well above $1m per year and includes eight full-time coaching/admin staff, four part-time North Queensland staff, 10 medical/strength and conditioning staff and 50 volunteer coaches spread across 11 hubs.

The club took sole responsibility for the academy program, which had previously been predominantly run by AFL Queensland and slapped with Suns branding. Academy staff moved into the club’s Carrara base at the Austworld Centre and were properly integrated into day-to-day operations.

By the end of 2019 the club had installed a full-time co-ordinator in North Queensland and the program had grown to above 400 players – almost double the figure only two years earlier.

THE FUTURE

At the end of 2021 the club made another substantial change to the academy set-up. It took control of the junior pathways, U13s – U15s, which had previously still been run by AFL Queensland.

Academy Manager Kath Newman, U19 Academy Coach Jarrod Cotton and Academy Coordinator Casey Haw were installed and the trio set about reconstructing the program from the ground up.

With the junior grades now also under the club’s eye, talent identification and cultivation could begin even earlier.

By 2022 the male program totalled 962 players – 644 boys and 318 girls – and the club had circled the academy as a long-term investment for both on-field success and community cohesion.

Gold Coast Suns Academy Manager Kath Newman. Picture: Somha Sleeth

The next move that seriously signalled the Suns’ intent was list boss Craig Cameron’s decision to relocate to the Gold Coast so he could work as close as possible with the academy program.

He is the only list boss in the AFL not based in Melbourne.

“It means I get to understand the talent coming through both the men’s and women’s pathways,” Cameron told this masthead.

“I’m able to build strong relationships with our academy coaches which is really important.

“Last year we took four academy players (in the draft). That’s not going to happen every year, but our aim is to build out the percentage of our list as local talent as much as we can.”

This year the club moved Rhyce Shaw into the newly-created role of Director of Coaching. He now works alongside the academy coaches and within communities at the 11 hubs across Queensland to improve the quality of coaching across the board.

Placing a former AFL senior coach in such a role signalled the seriousness of the Suns’ investment in the academy pathway.

“We could see there was a gap but our coaches were busy coaching the players and didn’t have the time or resources to coach the coaches,” Newman said.

Suns list boss Craig Cameron relocated to the Gold Coast in 2022 to be more hands-on with the academy. Picture: Michael Klein

“We decided if we were going to produce better players we had to produce better coaches and that’s where Shawy comes in. I truly believe it’s going to be a game changer for Queensland footy.” “It’s a commitment by us because we think the more you can improve local coaching the better the players are going to be once they get to the academy stage,” Cameron added.

“It’s good for community football but it’s terrific for us as well because when those players come to us they’ll have had more polished coaching.

“Even though participation in Queensland is going through the roof we can’t rely on just numbers meaning we get elite players at the end of it, we have to make sure we keep developing it.”

For every Jed Walter taken No. 3 in the national draft there might be 100 of his Academy peers whose names are not called.

But it’s not wasted investment as far as the club is concerned.

The Suns sit within one of the most contested sporting markets in the country. In southeast Queensland every sport imaginable is on the table.

In North Queensland, rugby league boasts a sizeable stranglehold on the junior sporting landscape.

Suns Academy star Leonardo Lombard could go in the first round of this year’s AFL draft. He played in the Suns’ VFL grand final triumph last year as a 16 year old. Picture: Getty Images

If the AFL wants to compete in that market, it needs the Suns – and Lions – Academy to function and flourish.

“Our club is here to win but it’s also here to expand the game and the more Queensland talent from our zone we can have play for us, the better it is for all those kids deciding which sport to play,” Cameron said.

“This market is so contested in terms of sports available to boys and girls to play. The more that can see the pathway to the AFL the better – and the more chances we’ll have getting first-choice athletes playing our sport.

“Our job is to cherry pick the talent to the AFL and AFLW but we have to make sure it’s there to start with and the only way to do that is for us to roll our sleeves up.”

Originally published as Gold Coast Suns Academy: The meetings, decisions and key players that shaped a development juggernaut