FINALS BID
From Melbourne to Metricon
QUEENSLAND is set to house most of the AFL competition with all 10 Victorian teams moving north.
They aren’t expected to play in Victoria again during the home-and-away season and a bidding war has erupted for the hosting rights of the 2020 grand final.
Suns CEO Mark Evans has revealed why the club’s home ground of Metricon Stadium should be considered among the candidates.
THE Suns have voiced their intent to become a consistent finals contender in the upcoming two years under coach Stuart Dew.
With Dew’s two-year extension sealed, the club has laid out its ambitions to make history by finishing in the top eight for the first time.
It’s a goal to make the finals this year, with the team at 3-3 after six games, but 2021 is when they expect the wheels to turn in a big way.
“Under Stuey we have clear intent now,” Suns chairman Tony Cochrane said. “We play an exciting brand of footy and I don’t have any doubt we are going to be marching into finals, if not next year, then the year after.
“Good footy clubs are about having the right people in the right jobs and a big part of that was finding the right long-term coach. Stuey has fit in like a glove.
“The players love him and everyone at the club loves him. He is a long-term part of the Gold Coast Football Club.”
Dew and Suns hierarchy agreed over the summer he would stay on but parked discussions out of respect to fellow staff members who had been stood down due to the COVID-19 crisis.
“We got to a comfortable place in the pre-season and when the whole world changed we were more than comfortable to park it,” Dew said.
“The hardest part is the start of the discussion and so the end was the easy bit.
“We had immediate priorities and we need to put our energy into them.
“I have always felt the support from all levels at this club so in that sense I was never nervous (about contract negotiations).
“We are all in the same boat. If we keep working hard and hit our strategy check point then the actual extension of everything and everyone is a by-product of that.”