Suns take it slow with new recruit Riordan

THE Suns won’t rush mid-season draftee Mitch Riordan into action, wary of avoiding the same injuries that have overshadowed fellow recruit Sam Fletcher’s early days with the club.

Riordan won’t be making his club debut for Gold Coast when the Suns NEAFL side play GWS at Giants Stadium in Sydney today and there is no set date locked in for his first game.

Fletcher signed with Gold Coast in March but ankle and quad injuries scuppered his hopes of building consistency after going straight into the reserves side while he will also miss today’s NEAFL game due to a minor toe injury.

Riordan arrived at the club this week and the inside midfielder said the lessons learnt from Fletcher’s setbacks would help form his own plan.

“I’m not quite sure (when the debut will be),” he said.

“It could still be a while away. They don’t want me to rush on to the park due to conditioning and stuff like that.

“I think the plan is to not rush me because of what they did with Fletcher, he got injured quite quickly and that was possibly due to getting thrown in.

“It will be more like a minipre-season just to get me up to speed with everyone.

“They are trying to tick all the boxes and make sure I am physically and mentally prepared when I do get to play.”

Riordan and Fletcher spent years playing for the Dandenong Stingrays together and helped guide the team to a TAC premiership last year.

The 19-year-old said the Suns had a special talent on their hands with Fletcher.

“Last year’s TAC Cup grand final personifies him,” Riordan said of Fletcher.

“He had a busted shoulder and his eye started bleeding, he had stitches I’m pretty sure.

“He is a real tough inside midfielder and you know what you are going to get.”

Southport Sharks NEAFL team will play Aspley at Fankhauser Reserve today.