Slow start costly as Suns down in NEAFL
SAM Day kicked five goals and Will Brodie eclipsed all with the ball but a slow start has cost Gold Coast a firstround NEAFL win in the country’s capital.
The Suns trailed by 28 points at halftime and, despite booting 10 of their 13 goals in the second half, it wasn’t enough to beat the Canberra Demons at Alan Ray Oval on Saturday.
Suns reserves coach Nick Malceski couldn’t explain his side’s sluggish start beyond suggesting the six-day break from the final pre-season game and nine top-ups had the team trying to gel early.
“We didn’t show up in the first half,” Malceski said.
“We started to get going in the third and played the way we wanted in the last. We got caught on transition a bit, they worked hard both ways and got us with their spread.
“We had six changes from last week’s team and it was about trying to get those guys playing in synch. It took time to figure it out.”
Gold Coast had 13 listed AFL players for the game and three of the top-ups were Southport players Jack Mentha, Jake Hinds and Suns academy graduate Kwabe Boakye.
Malceski praised the performance of Day, who was among their best alongside Brodie (38 disposals), Michael Rischitelli (29 disposals), Aaron Young (27 disposals, 1 goal), Tom Nicholls and Jacob Heron.
“Sam had a great game,” Malceski said.
“He was hard in the air and brought the ball to ground when he needed to.
“In the last couple of weeks we have had to move him around a bit because of injuries so we wanted to settle him in the forward line this week and it paid dividends.”