HISTORY IN THE MAKING
HAMMOND TELLS QUITE THE TAIL
Gold Coast AFL sides have enjoyed little joy when it comes to playing finals but a twist of fate has finally worked in their favour as they get a chance in the AFLW. Eliza Reilly reports.
IT was the tackle that singlehandedly put out any remaining glimmer of a maiden Suns’ finals berth.
Just four years into their AFL existence, 2014 saw the Suns emerge as a genuine finals contender.
What started as a campaign to relocate the flailing Kangaroos ended with a shiny new expansion club that promised to undo all the sporting woes of the city’s past.
At Round 10, the Suns had won a club-record five straight games and sat third on the ladder, allowing locals to forgive and forget three years of scarcity.
Then in Round 17, Collingwood stopper Brent Macaffer trapped captain Gary Ablett in a fierce tackle.
The result? The Brownlow Medal contender needed surgery for a dislocated shoulder.
The Suns won just one more match for the year and ultimately inaugural coach Guy McKenna was sacked.
Incoming coach Rodney Eade could only muster 16 wins from the next three seasons as injuries, player exits and culture took their toll.
The “Skase Curse” – a reported 30-year infliction borne out of Christopher Skase’s failed lighting payments at Carrara Stadium in 1989 – wrapped its fingers around another Coast sporting entity and squeezed.
Foundation Gold Coast club member Charlotte Hammans,
now a Suns AFLW player, said her loyalty was never about the results.
The 19-year-old and her whole family all have their names emblazoned on the “Hall of Fame” at Metricon Stadium and haven’t missed a home game in 10 years … except when contests have clashed with her footy commitments.
“When we first signed up, for us it wasn’t really about what they’d do,” she said.
“We just wanted to support the Gold Coast.
“We were never supporting them for success because they were only a new club so it was about the footy.
“It wasn’t hard to keep supporting them (in dry years) as they have so much involvement in the community.” Hammans isn’t far off. You’d be hard-pressed not to spot a red and yellow polo shirt at your footy club during the year. “I remember asking for autographs every time the Suns came out to my local training,” Hammans said.
“I was always the kid asking for autographs and now people are asking me.”
Along with her 29 listed Suns AFLW teammates, Hammans represents a new era in Gold Coast sport.
Not only have the AFLW side become the first team from the club in finals, but they are playing a distinct, exciting and respected style.
The wheel slowly began to turn with the arrival of men’s coach Stuart Dew but has been sent into overdrive with the success of the women.
“It means so much to the club and everyone behind the scenes,” head of women’s football Fiona McLarty said.
“To have a team playing well and producing finals … hopefully that flows through to the men as well.”
CHEYENNE Hammond is no stranger to brushing paths with some of Australia’s fiercest predators.
Whether it’s bearing down on some of the AFLW’s most vicious stars or escaping unharmed from a bout with Australia’s most poisonous reptile, Hammond has surprisingly done it all.
When she was eight and on a school excursion to the Kuitpo Forest in South Australia, Hammond had a brush with death that has since shaped her journey as a footballer. “We were walking in the bush and all of a sudden I had this stinging feeling on the side of my leg,” she said.
“I thought it was an ant or something but it kept getting worse so I told my teacher and she lifted up the bottom of my pants and said, ‘I’m just going to get a few more people.’
“She came back with a few of the other teachers and they all had a look and they were like: ‘Don’t panic but we think you’ve been bitten by a snake.’ And I was like: ‘What do you mean don’t panic!’
“I wasn’t allowed to move, which was really hard because I was busting to go to the toilet, but we went to hospital and they did all the tests and found out it was a brown snake.
“Luckily the bites were non-venomous because they think the snake had eaten that day and used up its venom.
“I actually wasn’t freaking out and thought it was fun I’d get to miss a few days of school. My mum jokes that I’m good at sport because I was bitten by a snake.”
The 21-year-old’s scaly secret came to the fore at the Suns recently when players were made to reveal a fun fact about themselves.
“All my teammates have been asking me about it since,” she said.
Hammond, formerly an elite soccer play who represented Adelaide United in the W-League, said she was still adjusting to the speed of AFLW just five games into her second elite sporting career.
“At first it was pretty hard,” she said. “There’s been a few times where I’ve been standing next to a big-name player or shaking hands with them after the game and you’ve dreamt of this your whole life.
“Games take a lot out of you both physically and mentally but I love playing and the challenge of training hard.
“It’s a lot faster and quicker than what I’m used to at a local footy level but I’m still adjusting.”
The Suns take on the Fremantle Dockers in Perth this afternoon in their first AFLW final series.