SUNS’ PLEA
Call for AFL to help out Gold Coast
POWERHOUSE Victorian clubs say they will consider supporting emergency concessions for the failing Gold Coast Suns.
Chairman Tony Cochrane yesterday declared the expansion club would be seeking special AFL assistance, which could include priority draft picks.
Hawthorn president Jeff Kennett yesterday gave guarded support to fresh Gold Coast concessions.
The 15th-placed Suns have lost 19 successive quarters and could break the all-time mark of 22 against lowly St Kilda at Metricon Stadium on Saturday.
AFL chiefs might have to rule on twin priority pick submissions, with the Brisbane Lions also certain to plead their case.
“I think it is a larger issue than the Gold Coast Suns – we are the focus this week but the draft has to be adjusted for more allowances,’’ said Cochrane (pictured).
“At the moment, the vast majority of AFL footballers come from three states in Australia. We have to find a way to better balance on how we retain footballers in the development states of Queensland and NSW.”
A PASSIONATE Suns chairman, Tony Cochrane, says not only will the under-fire AFL club survive but he believes it will become a destination club for the code’s best players in coming years.
Cochrane launched another emotional defence of the club yesterday as it battles through a bleak period following 85- and 108-point losses to Geelong and GWS in the past fortnight.
The Gold Coast side has just three wins from 11 games this season, prompting the likes of AFL great Jonathan Brown to warn the Suns could fold if the governing body does not help.
Brown dropped a bombshell on Fox Footy’s On The Couch program, claiming Gold Coasters did not care about the club at the moment and players wanted to leave, and appealing for the AFL to give the Coast concessions to make the team competitive and help it with its list build.
But Cochrane said the club was an easy target for Melbourne football critics and although he felt the same disappointment and frustration as Gold Coast members
and fans, he declared they were putting the building blocks in place for sustained success.
“The best way to solve this problem is to long term make our club a great club and a club of destination for people,” Cochrane said as the club battles to convince cocaptain
Tom Lynch not to become the next star behind Gary Ablett to walk out on the Suns.
Lynch is out of contract at the end of the season.
“You do that by getting the right people in the right jobs and you take your time to build it, brick by brick. If we do that we will become a club of destination and reverse this trend.
“There are no easy fixes. Deep down, people on the Gold Coast want to have a team that is here for the long term.
“They want to have a team that is successful and they want to see it thrive on the Gold Coast.
“The real genuine fans will be patient and they will work with us to try to ensure that.
“We are succeeding at the grassroots level. AFL is growing phenomenally strong in southeast Queensland, particularly here on the Coast.
“The build is there but you’re talking a generational thing. It’s not something that happens overnight, but in the next couple of years it will.”
Cochrane said free agent Lynch, estimated to garner $1.5 million a season if he signs for a Melbourne club, was an important part of the club’s build to success.
“We are doing all we can to keep the home fires burning and give Tom a clear pathway to what we want to achieve,” Cochrane said.
“We want Tom to be part of that. I can be a full-blown terrorist if I want to be (in trade negotiations). In this particular case I don’t want to go down that road.
“I’m focused on building a club and building confidence that Tom wants to stay with us. That is where my focus has completely and utterly been.”