Roast Swans barbie
After the Suns’ epic upset of Sydney, Tom Boswell looks at what happened afterwards
ABARBECUE breakfast in the front yard of Lachie Weller’s beachfront apartment has formed the meeting ground for the Gold Coast to reflect on the biggest win in the club’s history.
In the early hours of Sunday morning, the Suns gathered in Miami for what was a recovery session and celebration in equal measure following their historic first win over Sydney.
“It was good to get around and talk about the game,” Suns defender Rory Thompson said after Saturday’s 12.16 (88) to 8.16 (64) win at the SCG.
“(The neighbours) were probably still in bed but we had a few people come walk by and give us a clap which was nice.”
It had been 87 days and 11 games since the Suns last won.
“We have had a tough couple of months but to get a win against the Swans at the SCG is definitely the best win I’ve been involved in,” Thompson said.
Gold Coast were odds of $126 with Ladbrokes before the siren and blew out to $151 after going into the first break 29 points down.
Everything was against the Suns. They were on an enormous losing streak, the top five from last season’s club champion award were absent and the club had never beaten Sydney who were gunning for the four.
“We had a fair bit going
against us but internally at the club we thought we had been building towards something,” Thompson said.
“We just weren’t able to put together four quarters of it over the last few weeks.
“There were good signs and we knew if we could put it together a bit more consistently then the results would come.”
Thompson kept Lance Franklin to 0.3 to add another big scalp to his list in a season where he has taken the best forwards the opposition has.
“The pressure up the ground and in the contest through the middle of the ground made my job a lot easier,” Thompson said.