CHINESE TAKEOUT
Suns putting results on the field before cash
THE Suns will forgo an estimated $500,000 windfall and put results first in 2019 after revealing the AFL club won’t return to China next season.
Speaking at Gold Coast’s club champion awards on Saturday night, chairman Tony Cochrane confirmed the twoyear commitment with Port Adelaide to play matches in Shanghai would end.
The cash-strapped AFL club nets an estimated $500,000 profit from each fixture in China, but Cochrane said the time had come for change after another lacklustre campaign on the field.
“(This year) was our last foray to China,” Cochrane (right) said. “The board have decided that to give the playing group every possible chance in the future that the trip is too onerous and too difficult.”
Cochrane also took a swipe at David Koch after the Port Adelaide chairman’s infamous plea for the Suns to avoid donfor ning their traditional red and gold guernseys for the games.
“We will leave the Port Adelaide chairman to argue with someone else about the colour of their jumper,” he said.
Cochrane praised the team handling the tough start to 2018, in which they were forced to leave their home in Carrara and travel due to the Commonwealth Games.
“We might have travelled nearly 50,000km in 10 weeks ... but you had to be impressed off the field with the attitude,” he said. “I can’t imagine what would have been the vibe and the ill feeling if a major Melbourne club had of been asked to play every home game over a 50,000km stretch for the first 10 weeks. We handled it and will grow because of it.”
Cochrane also hailed firstyear coach Stuart Dew as “the best thing to ever happen to the Suns”.
SUNS club champion Jarrod Harbrow has spoken for the first time about how close he came to retiring and what convinced him to sign a new twoyear deal with Gold Coast.
The respected defender and foundation Suns player said the on-field results of Gold Coast’s first eight years in the AFL had taken a toll.
But Harbrow declared his off-field work with his indigenous academy had given him renewed motivation to help turn the club around.
“I thought about it (quitting),” Harbrow said. “But it would have been pretty selfish of me. I have a family and I feel like I have so much more to give back. (Retirement) did cross my mind a bit. Just the fact of how the club and our results have been over the previous eight years.
“I am desperate to turn this club around and we all owe it to each other. I think it was just the off-field work I’m doing that kept me going.
“That keeps me motivated and that keeps me looking forward to it. I wake up looking forward to what I’m going to do next with the indigenous academy boys.
“That kept me going and I had a few conversations with the club on where I can take that so it was a really good future that I saw that I can pursue. My form was still pretty good too so I would have been mad not to play on.”
Harbrow got two standing ovations at the club champion awards on Saturday at Southport Sharks on a night when he was presented with four
awards. The 30-year-old also won the player’s player and community awards, while he was also presented with life membership of the club.
Harbrow said he was humbled to win the award as he reflected on an 11-year career that began at the Western Bulldogs in 2007.
“I am really proud of a lot of the hard work I have put in, not just this year but over a number of years, since I have been up here,” Harbrow said.
“It’s a massive reward I take great pride in. I’m really humbled to be playing footy for starters and to be receiving this award is a massive bonus.
“There are always more people out there who need more help from all different walks of life.”
Harbrow finished with 390 votes to win the award ahead of Touk Miller (351) and Lachie Weller (336).
Co-captain Tom Lynch, who has requested to be traded, attended post-season events throughout the week as well as the club champion awards, where coach Stuart Dew thanked the key forward for his contribution to the club.