QClash first taste strong for coaches

FOR six years no coach ever made their club debut in a QClash and now in 2017 it is going to happen twice.

Lions coach Chris Fagan has the dual distinction of coaching and winning his first game against their bitter M1 rivals in Round 1.

Now all Brisbane fans are hoping the club doesn’t fall victim to the rebound effect from the Suns following the sacking of Suns coach Rodney Eade this week.

Dean Solomon will lead the Suns this weekend and punters predict it will cause a performance spike.

Superstitious footy punters are betting around Brisbane and buttering up to the besieged Gold Coast in the leadup to Saturday’s QClash.

Bookmaker UBET reports seeing more individual bets for the $2.35 outsider Suns than the $1.60 favourite Lions since Eade was dumped on Tuesday.

“Before the Suns fired Rocket they were just about friendless, but as soon as the news broke of his demise, the bets began to roll in,” UBET’s Nick Curry said.

“Our customers can be a superstitious lot at the best of times, so we often see this type of betting behaviour when a coach is sacked and not just in the AFL either, across all codes.’’

Curry suggested a “deeply rooted sports belief” was the cause.

“If you listen to the real sports tragics, when a side sacks a coach, they are ‘good things’ to win the following week, based, I guess, on the notion that the dismissal will galvanise the playing group,” Curry said.