SUNS FACE DEEP CUTS
Founding father for Gold Coast AFL franchise says call to sack coach Rodney Eade the start of a cleanout within the footy club’s hierarchy
THE clean-out at the Suns has only just begun with one of the club’s founding fathers tipping more senior Gold Coast officials to be shown the door.
Suns bid team member and co-founder Graeme Downie said Eade’s sacking amid an ongoing review meant more heads were set to roll and predicted widespread changes to the Gold Coast’s football staff.
This puts the blowtorch on key officials including football manager Marcus Ashcroft and list manager Scott Clayton, who have been with the club since its inception.
“This suggests to me that there is going to be a wholesale clean out,” said Downie, no longer involved with the club.
“If it was only the senior coach and one or two assistants you would let it run the season but if it’s more than that you just don’t want to impact the whole football club in one hit too severely.”
Downie said Eade was a victim and wasn’t the problem while taking aim at the club’s recruitment and development, unending injuries, playing group and coaches for putting the club into a state of flux for seven years.
“You can’t say Rodney’s time has been successful but by the same token I don’t see Rocket (Eade) as the problem,” Downie said.
“I don’t think people were criticising his game plan to any major extent, he was trying to play to his strengths.
“I don’t think it’s Rocket’s fault – I think he is a victim. He is a good footy person and good bloke. It’s sad that’s the way it’s gone for him. They have to fix a lot of things there.
“The Suns will look around and say you have been here for ‘X’ number of years and maybe you guys are the problem.
“The hierarchy have been in the system long enough now and not much has happened.
“They have to make wholesale changes and obviously the coach is part of that.”
Downie was part of the group that hired Clayton as list manager but concedes the club may have got their initial build wrong. Downie said too many of the players haven’t produced the talent or been developed properly while others have been hindered by injury.
“The personnel just aren’t playing well and it’s a club that just seems to have a never ending injury list,” Downie said.
“We all know injuries are part of footy and all clubs get them but we just seem to get them to key players all the time. They have got players like (Steven) May and (Tom) Lynch who are guns and could play in any side in the competition and the rest just fall away in my opinion.
“These younger guys they are OK but they are not exciting really. Other boys have been in the system a couple of years and none of them have reached a good level.
“You just wonder about these guys who have been I the system a couple of years and their dropping easy marks and handballing behind players.”
Downie has been involved with the Brisbane Bears, Brisbane Lions and Suns and expressed sadness the Suns had fallen so far behind the pack.
“It’s sad and it’s disappointing,” Downie said.
“My passion is AFL footy and the development of the game in Queensland so I want to see both (Suns and Lions) playing finals. We seem to have slipped behind NSW by a long way.”
Downie labelled former Carlton head coach and current Hawthorn assistant Brett Ratten and Port Adelaide assistant Michael Voss, also a former head coach at Brisbane, as his preferred candidates for the vacant position at the Suns.
“They are former senior coaches who all went in mainly a little bit prematurely but are very good footy people who didn’t make it at a club,” Downie said.
“They have been pushed into the backbenches and now everyone is talking about people who have had no senior coaching experience. Voss or Ratten are the standouts.”