Suns getting desperate

Gold Coast to seek help with player retention

THE embattled Gold Coast will apply for emergency assistance in a submission to the AFL commission next month.

Suns chairman Tony Cochrane yesterday confirmed the club would be seeking help to retain star players and strengthen its ailing list with priority draft picks.

If they were awarded a priority pick, one scenario could see the Suns pocket the first two picks if they finish last.

Richmond smashed the Queensland expansion club by 92 points at Metricon Stadium on Saturday — their 11thstraight loss under second-year coach Stuart Dew.

“Nobody could genuinely sit there at the moment and say, ‘They don’t need any assistance, they’re all good’,” Cochrane (pictured) said.

“We have been down on the bottom pretty much our whole existence. So if ever there was a case — and there have been others who have been helped in the past — we are an absolute rock steady, walk up, head start.

“We’re travelling along reasonably well financially … so I’m not aware of financial assistance we will be asking for. We are asking for assistance with the playing roster.”

AFL commission chairman Richard Goyder last month revealed the league was considering special rules to force high-end draft picks to stay at the Suns and Brisbane Lions for longer than the mandatory two seasons.

The $200 million Suns were handed special access to state league players ahead of last year’s national draft as well as additional funding for their development academy.

Cochrane said a detailed assistance submission would be finalised at this month’s board meeting.

“We hope to present it to our July board meeting and then get it in to the commission shortly thereafter,” he said. The Suns boss said the mistakes of the past in setting up the league’s 17th club were “irrelevant”.

“The only thing you get from looking back is a sore neck,” he said. “What we have to focus on is what we can do this year, next year and the year after to make sure we are a valuable contributor to the AFL family. I couldn’t care who did what, how they did it and what they screwed up. To me that is water under the bridge.”