Fiorini flies flag as new wave find their feet
THE Suns offloaded seasoned AFL players last year in order to see what the next generation could bring and Brayden Fiorini has wasted no time in showing his worth.
Gold Coast were already full of young players but the list became even younger when the likes of Jarryd Lyons was traded to Brisbane and Michael Barlow was offloaded, while Matthew Rosa retired.
Suns coach Stuart Dew said it was a chance to see if the high talent coming through had what it takes.
Fiorini, 21, was among the best in Gold Coast’s one-point loss to St Kilda yesterday at Marvel Stadium, recording a game-high 30 disposals, six clearances and five inside 50m deliveries. Jack Bowes (22 disposals) and Darcy Macpherson (20 disposals) were also strong.
“Individually I felt pretty good,” Fiorini said. “I had a slow start to the year in the JLT games but I just wanted to impose myself in the contest and try and get the boys going.
“I was happy but it’s a long season and you have to keep backing up.”
Dew said it was now up to the young players to produce.
“Decisions were made at the end of last year so we could see how good Brayden Fiorini will be, see how good Jack Bowes will be,” Dew said.
“We certainly wanted to explore that and Brayden has started the season really well on the back of a strong preseason. It’s different playing close games in the midfield and learning from that rather then playing a little on the flank and down back.
“We needed to make decisions on working out what we have got and how good they can be. We know Jarryd (Lyons) will go on and play good footy but we had a couple parked there we wanted to find out about. It will be a win-win.”