Eade now keen to keep China ties alive
GOLD Coast coach Rodney Eade does not want to see the sun set on his club’s potential return to China.
Eade, once sceptical of the experiment to play a premiership game in Shanghai, says the Suns would love to be Port’s long- term partner in China.
“We’d love to be, yes,’’ he said.
“It is AFL- driven, but from our point of view when we come back except for the result, everything has been terrific. The preparation and everything the Chinese people have been able to do for us and the organisation, it has been great.’’
However, his comments provide another mixed message from the Suns.
Gold Coast chief executive Mark Evans will only publicly commit to a review of the operation’s commercial benefits for the battling club. And outspoken chairman Tony Cochrane appears to be wavering.
Cochrane has promoted the push into China and his club’s role in the game passionately in public. But Suns insiders say as frustrations mounted in China he was singing a different tune.
AFL chief executive Gillon McLachlan has picked up on the mixed messages out of the Suns.
Eade, whose wings were clipped before the club left after making comments on radio about the potential respiratory issues, is now publicly at least, nothing but supportive. He said he would not want that game to be the lasting impression his side made on China.