Rowell leading charge
TO butcher the title of a 1969 hit from The Beatles — Here Come the Suns.
And they’re all right.
Gold Coast has had its fair share of false dawns in its short history but the one-time whipping boy of the AFL drew a line in the sand with an emphatic 53-point thumping of the atrocious Adelaide at Metricon Stadium yesterday.
It was the first time the Suns had defeated the Crows.
Adelaide failed to register a score in the opening quarter to make it the first time the Gold Coast had kept an opponent scoreless in a term.
Boom 18-year-old Matt Rowell provided more clips for the highlight reel with two spectacular goals while key forward Ben King booted three goals for the rampant home side as the Crows’ perplexing fall from grace since the 2017 Grand Final continues.
Quite simply, they are in crisis and it is hard to see any other side collecting the wooden spoon.
They only narrowly avoided their lowest score of 24 points from Round 18, 2011, against St Kilda.
The final margin flattered Adelaide.
Rowell was best-on-ground again with 20 disposals, 12 contested possessions, three clearances, 10 tackles and three inside 50 entries to go with his two goals.
But he had plenty of help all over the ground with cocaptain Jarrod Witts, Brandon Ellis, King, Touk Miller, Lachie Weller, Hugh Greenwood and Queensland product Connor Budarick among the best in an outstanding collective effort.
They looked on track to challenge their biggest win — 86 points over Hawthorn in
B. King 3, D. MacPherson, M. Rowell 2, A. Sexton, B. Ainsworth, C. Budarick, L. Weller, T. Miller.
B. Crocker, B. Keays, D. Fogarty, T. Walker.
B. King, M. Rowell, H. Greenwood, T. Miller, J. Witts, C. Budarick.
R. Laird, M. Crouch, B. Crouch, T. Doedee. 1997 at Metricon Stadium.
Round 3, 2017 — but the fourth term turned into junk time with the four premiership points long-sealed.
The Suns led by 58 points at the last change after continuing the carnage in the third quarter with the high point being an Ablett-esque goal from Darcy MacPherson, who was against the boundary line with no angle to work with but managed to steer the ball home.
The Suns scorched their way to a 35-point lead at halftime with a four-goal pile-on in the second term allowing the Gold Coast to cash-in on their dominance.
King, Alex Sexton and Ben Ainsworth all kicked truly to extend the home side’s buffer before Rowell put the cream on top when he burst out of the centre square and pumped the Sherrin through the posts on the run off his non-preferred left foot.
It impressed Collingwood senior coach Nathan Buckley, who quickly took to Twitter to praise the stunning goal and Rowell’s old-school habit of tucking in his jumper.
It was certainly an oldfashioned carve-up.
From the first bounce, the Suns had an intensity and urgency in their body language that was certainly not present in their Crows rivals.
And the numbers from the first quarter backed that up.
The Suns had 26 more disposals at quarter-time, 18 more contested possessions, 11 more clearances and 15 more inside 50 entries. Yet they also had four more tackles.
The Gold Coast peppered the goals early but their radar was a bit off until MacPherson eventually registered the first major.
King opened his account late in the first term to give the
Suns a 19-point advantage at the first change while the Crows’ tally resembled a row of duck eggs.
Darcy Fogarty kicked Adelaide’s only goal of the first half, four minutes into the second term. Four Crows did not touch the ball in the first term while three had only the one touch to their name.