Frenzied talk of Suns setting way off mark
AS A proud West Australian living in Queensland, you need to consume footy any way you can because there is nowhere near as much on offer as there is back home.
I am a religious AFL 360 watcher on Fox Footy and that usually provides the daily update required.
On the show, they have a regular phrase used “deep breath Tuesday”, which, following all the immediate heavy-handed reaction and analysis on a Monday from the weekend’s results, they will step back and do what the phrase suggests.
Like the show, I think everyone needs to take a deep breath on writing obituaries for the Gold Coast Suns as an AFL club.
Some of the reactions last week, following their second flogging in two-straight rounds, had the Suns shutting up shop completely or being sent to either Tasmania or Darwin, which is insane to suggest.
The year 2018 was always going to be an uphill battle for the second-youngest AFL club.
The Suns arguably had the worst set of fixtures ever handed to an AFL team, playing away from home for 10 weeks (due to the Commonwealth Games) to start 2018.
And, when they finally did return home, they were pumped by Geelong as their fatigue from the taxing opening three months to the season was finally exposed.
Two clubs in Queensland are critical to the continued growth in the game, with the Suns serving us in North Queensland through their zone.
You do not have to look any further than AFL Queensland’s CEO Dean Warren’s comments in the Cairns Post earlier this month to see how important the Suns are. “We achieved 10 per cent growth in all our competitions and programs last year and reached 252,000 participants for the first time,” Warren said.
“While the two AFL clubs are battling on field at the moment, we think when they start turning that around and have on-field success, we will see a significant increase in our participation numbers. History tells us that is the case.”
If you speak to the people in the know in the Far North AFL community, many say the Suns should be doing more on the ground across North Queensland to help develop the game — there is always room for improvement.
While the Suns may not win a flag over the next few years, they will outlive most of us as a prosperous AFL club.