Life is a beach for the desperate Suns
GOLD Coast got the boxing gloves out after their 92-point loss to Richmond.
The old-style rev-up session failed to generate a response as the Suns recorded a second straight belting at the hands of the Crows on Saturday, this time by 95 points.
This week they took a different tack, trading punches for positivity when they went off site for half a day to Kurrawa beach on Monday in a bid to hit the reset button.
Coach Stuart Dew revealed yesterday his search for answers to one of the worst form slumps in the club’s rocky history led him to look back at what they did at the start of the season when they won three of their first four games.
“It was a little more holistic in terms of the six weeks upcoming rather than the four quarters,’’ he said of this week’s review.
“We’re looking to regain confidence so we went back and looked at what made us a good side and hard to play against early in the season and focused on how to extract that in the next six weeks.’’
The Suns take on Carlton tomorrow in a game that could decide who gets the wooden spoon.
Josh Corbett and Brad Scheer have been dropped and have lost Anthony Miles to suspension and Lachie Weller (illness). Chris Burgess, Corey Ellis, Jacob Dawson and Peter Wright come into the side.
Dew knows the next six weeks are critical.
Gold Coast have gone public with their intent to recruit players with premiership experience at the end of this season and Dew needs to be able to show any prospective additions that progress is being made.
In the past fortnight the Suns have produced two of the worst four performances ever at Metricon Stadium – rivalling the 99-point hiding by Hawthorn in 2014 and the 95-point loss to St Kilda in 2012. An 85-point belting by Geelong last year means three of the top five losses on their home ground have come under Dew.
Dew was coy on the Suns’ interest in Hawk veteran Shaun Burgoyne detailed by list manager Craig Cameron yesterday.
Burgoyne has won four premierships and played 370 games but at 36 years of age there are no guarantees he can play for the two years the Suns will offer him.
Melbourne’s Jordan Lewis and Geelong’s Harry Taylor were other players linked.
“We don’t just want to go and get who’s played a lot of games, a lot more goes into our thinking than that and where they can have impact on and off the field,’’ he said.
“Shaun’s name’s been thrown up but that’s because he clearly fits the bill, every club knows that. But we haven’t even spoken to him.”