Suns shine against depleted Geelong Cats side
THE Gold Coast Suns have made a bright start to life under coach Stuart Dew with an emphatic 12.13 ( 85) to 3.11 ( 29) win over Geelong in their opening JTL Community Series clash at Riverway Stadium yesterday.
The Suns made a flying start in front of the 3206- strong Townsville crowd as skipper Tom Lynch booted the opening goal inside the first minute following a defensive 50 intercept.
Aaron Young followed it up before Gryan Miers booted Geelong’s first goal, but the Suns still dominated the contest as Aaron Hall and Sean Lem- mons kicked them to a 4.4 ( 28) to 1.1 ( 7) quarter- time lead.
The Cats made a promising start to the second term as Suns ruckman Tom Nicholls accidentally dropped the ball on his foot giving Daniel Menzel the chance to kick a sensational around- the- corner goal from a free kick.
Alex Sexton soon hit back for the Suns, but both sides lacked polish as they managed just one goal each for the quarter to make it 5.7 ( 37) to 2.3 ( 15) at halftime.
The Suns needed just 18 seconds to get on the board in the third quarter as Brayden Fiorini nailed a superb long- range goal to kickstart an attacking blitz, with quick goals to Nick Holman and Sexton.
Geelong could only manage a handful of minor scores in reply while Lemmons, Fiorini, and Sam Day all added goals for Gold Coast as their lead blew out to 11.9 ( 75) to 2.9 ( 21) at the final break.
Esava Ratugolea finally broke Geelong’s scoring drought with a huge goal early in the fourth quarter, but Hall’s second major iced a comfortable 56- point victory for the Suns.
It wasn’t all good news for the Suns as Lemmons left the field late with a hamstring injury after a standout per- formance, but Dew felt it was a promising performance in his first official game as a head coach.
“I think today we were consistent, the challenge is week after week and year after year,” Dew said.
“When you look at the club we just played, they deliver year after year.
“Geelong were missing some reasonable players so we respect that, but we can only play what we played today.”
Geelong will welcome back stars like Joel Selwood and Patrick Dangerfield for their second preseason clash, which will be against Essendon next weekend.