MAY NOT A ‘SAVIOUR’
SUNS co-captain Tom Lynch warns returning key defender Steven May won’t be Gold Coast’s saviour as the club looks to cause an upset against Geelong.
May is set to make his comeback from a hamstring injury – alongside David Swallow and Kade Kolodjashnij – after missing Gold Coast’s losses to North Melbourne and Adelaide in the past fortnight.
The 25-year-old, Lynch’s leadership partner, will bolster the Suns defence that has been under fire without him.
Lynch said May would make a difference to the Suns chances against the Cats – who boast the likes of in-form forward Tom Hawkins – but said he wasn’t the sole source of Gold Coast’s fortunes.
“Steve is not going to be the saviour,” Lynch said.
“He brings that leadership. He is a co-captain and he’s great in the backline – he wins his one on ones. He is going to be really good and really drive the boys down in the backline.
“He knows what it takes. We had a fairly young defence (against North Melbourne).
“Jack Leslie is doing a great job ... he is really coming along and with Steve there alongside him it is only going to benefit (Leslie).”
Collingwood showed how to pick apart Geelong last weekend, keeping midfielders Patrick Dangerfield and Joel Selwood to 21 and 17 possessions respectively in the Cats first loss of the season.
But Lynch said it would take more than silencing the star pair to win on Saturday.
“They have a strong side across the ground. You would be foolish to focus on Dangerfield and Selwood.
“If you get too focused on one player then others will really hurt you.”
Gold Coast suffered a 13point loss to the Kangaroos last Saturday but Lynch praised the team’s ability to stop North Melbourne from breaking away to big margins, as had happened in other defeats the Suns have suffered.
“The good thing I took out of the game was the first three quarters when they had the momentum, instead of kicking three or four goals they sort of kicked two and we were able to get one back,” Lynch said.
“The last quarter we weren’t able to stop the three goals they kicked late that won them the game really so that was the disappointing part.”
It was an open and free flowing game at Etihad Stadium but Lynch predicted this weekend’s clash with Geelong to be a hotly contested one.
“Etihad is a pretty fast deck – a lot of games there are open and free flowing,” Lynch said.
“It’s very fast so I think it will be a fairly contested game this week and it will be hard fought in close.”