- Apr 22, 2017
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The past
3 years ago, after years of being bad but not North/WCE of the last 4 years so we can't get AFL assistance bad, we emerged from a Ross Lyon induced torpor. Despite losing key midfielder Adam Cerra to Carlton (lol), as well as two-time Brownlow medallist and heir to the mighty Fyfe Transport trucking empire, Lord Nathan Fyfe himself, for the majority of the season, we spent much of it in and around the top four. In fact it was only due to Carlton’s epic last quarter collapse in the final round that we were knocked down to 5th place.
On a cold, windy night against Bevo's Bulldogs we started as we were wont to do, sleepwalking to a 7 goal deficit, with Marcus Bontempelli putting on a clinic. It wasn’t until the shadows of half time that a certain small forward from Midland bobbed up with our first goal.
Those who have watched footy for long enough could hear a voice off in the distance somewhere, exclaiming “THAT COULD BE THE FIRESTARTER!”
It turns out even a broken cliché machine like Dwayne Russell is right twice a century. Because if Billy Joel didn't start the fire than Sonny Walters sure as **** did. We kicked another 3 goals in literally a blink of an eye to be just 15 points down at the half. It was clear we smelled Bulldog blood.
You know the rest. The Dogs didn't light it, the Bont tried to fight it, that was a shitful effort to shoehorn in a song that is literally just shoehorning in random historical events for lyrics, but this the effort level I’m running with.
I will say when Michael Frederick ran down Ed Richards to set up an easy goal for said small forward, the whole stadium shook to the point an elderly fan near me instinctively grabbed the railing to stabilise themselves.
The next week we again started poorly and it finally caught up with us as Collingwood were too strong at the MCG. Despite the loss, we were by far the youngest team in the finals so the future looked bright.
The present
Alas, it was too soon and in 2023 the team regressed badly. The often slow, methodical build up play was found out against teams that utilised our lack of forward pressure to rebound quickly out of defensive 50. The following year was better but marred by an inability to win close games, a lowlight being the Carlton 2022-esque chokejob away to Essendon which precipitated tumbling out of finals.
Come 2025 JL’s seat was hotter than ever. Injuries to key players had provided with him an excuse of sorts for the August collapse but patience was running out. A poor showing at Geelong followed by a last minute capitulation against Sydney and it just about did.
Backs to the wall, we won 4 of the next 5 to get the season back on track, before a Friday night flogging to the Saints put the coach firmly back in the gun. An honourable loss versus ladder leaders Collingwood did little to improve our fortunes. At 4–5, a loss away to GWS would’ve probably been curtains both for the season and the coach.
Again, with backs to the wall, we finally clicked into gear. It wasn’t always pretty and we made hard work of many opponents but by the same token we were now winning the close ones. Personal highlights in the 12–2 run were the final quarters where we trailed and came back to win vs St Kilda, Collingwood and Carlton.
History repeated itself and after 2 years we were back in an elimination final, well a de facto elimination final at least, against our old friends from “the mighty west”, which is Victorian speak for we’re not even the westernmost team in our state.
It was only 10 days ago so I won’t repeat it, but in many ways it mirrored the encounter 3 years ago – the Dogs starting fast before we came back into it and them being unable to arrest our momentum. Even a brilliant as ever last quarter from Bontempelli again, which should get him 3 Brownlow votes, and some honestly poor finishing from us wasn’t enough to stop our belated return to September.
Enough nostalgic navel-gazing though, what will this game bring?
The opponents
Like us, the Gold Coast Suns are sponsored by HostPlus. So even if we lose here, at least one of our glorious sponsors are winning. Hence the title.
Clearly when the AFL termed the Gold Coast Suns an expansion club, it wasn’t clear to them what the term meant. The Suns spent much of their formative years massively expanding Gary Ablett Jr’s bank account, amongst other scandals, and once they figured that wasn’t working, they appointed Stuart Dew as coach and focused on expanding his waistline. A five year comparison below, judge for yourself:
Under Damien Hardwick though they’ve finally gotten their act together. A strong midfield, quality at both ends of the ground, on their day they can trouble anybody. Being formerly connected to a big Vic club means that when he whinges about umps and how Ross Lyon is mean to them it also carries extra weight, despite his relative lack of it compared to his predecessor.
I won’t pretend I watch every game of theirs but I happened to watch their last 3 matches live, so here’s my totally well-informed opinions on them.
Strengths
Both newly-minted All-Australians, one of whom is the Coaches’ player of the year, you don’t get much better midfield duos than Noah Anderson and his grass munching school pal Matt Rowell. With Wagner done for the season someone else will have to give Anderson some attention. How about a former Sun who’s in line to play his 200th game this week?
Ben King finished second in the Coleman so we’ll need another game from Pearce like he had vs Sam Darcy. Limit him and we go a long way to winning this one.
John Noble and Dan Rioli have been astute recruits to bolster their rebound out of defence. Both come from finals experience which the Suns otherwise lack (Ben Long AFAIK being the only exception) and the latter has won flags under their current coach.
They of course travel off the back of the biggest win in their history, both in terms of margin and importance. While it’s a huge milestone for them that deserves credit, I doubt Hardwick will let them see this game as a free hit.
That said, they aren’t expected to win so the pressure will firmly be on our side of the equation.
Weaknesses
I’ve watched their last 3 games and while their defence is certainly better than the Dogs, they aren’t the quickest team at covering the ground and this can leave them short in transition. GWS used this to great effect with the Orange Tsunami kicking 8 or 9 goals out of their defensive 50.
Against Port they were shafted by the umpires however I was surprised by how often their two AA players won but then butchered the ball out of stoppages. Part of this was the fact Port were obviously up for it being Master Coach Hinkley's last game and their pressure was up there - if we can apply similar levels of pressure it will hold us in good stead.
Their record against the top 8 is alright at 4–6, but crucially none of those wins were away from home (one was in Darwin which has become a fortress for them). While they’re certainly better on the road than last year they haven’t taken a big scalp yet. Their record in Perth against us is 1–7 with none since we moved from Subiaco.
Verdict
I expect very few will tip the Suns, however very few tipped us to beat the Bulldogs last week. They certainly have the cattle to turn up and cause a boilover.
The forecast is for rain, which is similar to the weather last time we met and prevailed. Having said that I feel we have a better chance if it stayed dry, but oh well.
While the Suns’ form away from home isn’t great, nor is our ability to put away teams. I have us winning but it won’t be convincing, like our last encounter.
Other stuff
Whatever happens Saturday, I want to acknowledge The Firestarter from that elimination final 3 years ago, as he was in the on the last Saturday in September 12 years ago when nothing was going right for us, and countless times in between. To come from a pretty rough area and reach the AFL system, never mind play 200+ games, kick 360+ goals and garner an AA blazer, after going to a public school is sadly too rare especially in WA.
And to Nathan, thanks for taking 15 years out of your time to descend among us mortals. A lot is said about your leaping ability but my favourite memory of watching you live will be you somehow bursting from a rolling maul of 12-15 bodies with the ball, leaving even the players with no idea how you did it. It's been a pleasure.
That's enough diatribe. Sadly I do think any realistic odds of winning the flag lengthened considerably with the Brisbane defeat and missing the top four. But I also think our age profile means we are well placed to contend in the future, whether you think JL is the man or not, although we all said that 3 years ago.
But first, just get past this lot.
3 years ago, after years of being bad but not North/WCE of the last 4 years so we can't get AFL assistance bad, we emerged from a Ross Lyon induced torpor. Despite losing key midfielder Adam Cerra to Carlton (lol), as well as two-time Brownlow medallist and heir to the mighty Fyfe Transport trucking empire, Lord Nathan Fyfe himself, for the majority of the season, we spent much of it in and around the top four. In fact it was only due to Carlton’s epic last quarter collapse in the final round that we were knocked down to 5th place.
On a cold, windy night against Bevo's Bulldogs we started as we were wont to do, sleepwalking to a 7 goal deficit, with Marcus Bontempelli putting on a clinic. It wasn’t until the shadows of half time that a certain small forward from Midland bobbed up with our first goal.
Those who have watched footy for long enough could hear a voice off in the distance somewhere, exclaiming “THAT COULD BE THE FIRESTARTER!”
It turns out even a broken cliché machine like Dwayne Russell is right twice a century. Because if Billy Joel didn't start the fire than Sonny Walters sure as **** did. We kicked another 3 goals in literally a blink of an eye to be just 15 points down at the half. It was clear we smelled Bulldog blood.
You know the rest. The Dogs didn't light it, the Bont tried to fight it, that was a shitful effort to shoehorn in a song that is literally just shoehorning in random historical events for lyrics, but this the effort level I’m running with.
I will say when Michael Frederick ran down Ed Richards to set up an easy goal for said small forward, the whole stadium shook to the point an elderly fan near me instinctively grabbed the railing to stabilise themselves.
The next week we again started poorly and it finally caught up with us as Collingwood were too strong at the MCG. Despite the loss, we were by far the youngest team in the finals so the future looked bright.
The present
Alas, it was too soon and in 2023 the team regressed badly. The often slow, methodical build up play was found out against teams that utilised our lack of forward pressure to rebound quickly out of defensive 50. The following year was better but marred by an inability to win close games, a lowlight being the Carlton 2022-esque chokejob away to Essendon which precipitated tumbling out of finals.
Come 2025 JL’s seat was hotter than ever. Injuries to key players had provided with him an excuse of sorts for the August collapse but patience was running out. A poor showing at Geelong followed by a last minute capitulation against Sydney and it just about did.
Backs to the wall, we won 4 of the next 5 to get the season back on track, before a Friday night flogging to the Saints put the coach firmly back in the gun. An honourable loss versus ladder leaders Collingwood did little to improve our fortunes. At 4–5, a loss away to GWS would’ve probably been curtains both for the season and the coach.
Again, with backs to the wall, we finally clicked into gear. It wasn’t always pretty and we made hard work of many opponents but by the same token we were now winning the close ones. Personal highlights in the 12–2 run were the final quarters where we trailed and came back to win vs St Kilda, Collingwood and Carlton.
History repeated itself and after 2 years we were back in an elimination final, well a de facto elimination final at least, against our old friends from “the mighty west”, which is Victorian speak for we’re not even the westernmost team in our state.
It was only 10 days ago so I won’t repeat it, but in many ways it mirrored the encounter 3 years ago – the Dogs starting fast before we came back into it and them being unable to arrest our momentum. Even a brilliant as ever last quarter from Bontempelli again, which should get him 3 Brownlow votes, and some honestly poor finishing from us wasn’t enough to stop our belated return to September.
Enough nostalgic navel-gazing though, what will this game bring?
The opponents
Like us, the Gold Coast Suns are sponsored by HostPlus. So even if we lose here, at least one of our glorious sponsors are winning. Hence the title.
Clearly when the AFL termed the Gold Coast Suns an expansion club, it wasn’t clear to them what the term meant. The Suns spent much of their formative years massively expanding Gary Ablett Jr’s bank account, amongst other scandals, and once they figured that wasn’t working, they appointed Stuart Dew as coach and focused on expanding his waistline. A five year comparison below, judge for yourself:
Under Damien Hardwick though they’ve finally gotten their act together. A strong midfield, quality at both ends of the ground, on their day they can trouble anybody. Being formerly connected to a big Vic club means that when he whinges about umps and how Ross Lyon is mean to them it also carries extra weight, despite his relative lack of it compared to his predecessor.
I won’t pretend I watch every game of theirs but I happened to watch their last 3 matches live, so here’s my totally well-informed opinions on them.
Strengths
Both newly-minted All-Australians, one of whom is the Coaches’ player of the year, you don’t get much better midfield duos than Noah Anderson and his grass munching school pal Matt Rowell. With Wagner done for the season someone else will have to give Anderson some attention. How about a former Sun who’s in line to play his 200th game this week?
Ben King finished second in the Coleman so we’ll need another game from Pearce like he had vs Sam Darcy. Limit him and we go a long way to winning this one.
John Noble and Dan Rioli have been astute recruits to bolster their rebound out of defence. Both come from finals experience which the Suns otherwise lack (Ben Long AFAIK being the only exception) and the latter has won flags under their current coach.
They of course travel off the back of the biggest win in their history, both in terms of margin and importance. While it’s a huge milestone for them that deserves credit, I doubt Hardwick will let them see this game as a free hit.
That said, they aren’t expected to win so the pressure will firmly be on our side of the equation.
Weaknesses
I’ve watched their last 3 games and while their defence is certainly better than the Dogs, they aren’t the quickest team at covering the ground and this can leave them short in transition. GWS used this to great effect with the Orange Tsunami kicking 8 or 9 goals out of their defensive 50.
Against Port they were shafted by the umpires however I was surprised by how often their two AA players won but then butchered the ball out of stoppages. Part of this was the fact Port were obviously up for it being Master Coach Hinkley's last game and their pressure was up there - if we can apply similar levels of pressure it will hold us in good stead.
Their record against the top 8 is alright at 4–6, but crucially none of those wins were away from home (one was in Darwin which has become a fortress for them). While they’re certainly better on the road than last year they haven’t taken a big scalp yet. Their record in Perth against us is 1–7 with none since we moved from Subiaco.
Verdict
I expect very few will tip the Suns, however very few tipped us to beat the Bulldogs last week. They certainly have the cattle to turn up and cause a boilover.
The forecast is for rain, which is similar to the weather last time we met and prevailed. Having said that I feel we have a better chance if it stayed dry, but oh well.
While the Suns’ form away from home isn’t great, nor is our ability to put away teams. I have us winning but it won’t be convincing, like our last encounter.
Other stuff
Whatever happens Saturday, I want to acknowledge The Firestarter from that elimination final 3 years ago, as he was in the on the last Saturday in September 12 years ago when nothing was going right for us, and countless times in between. To come from a pretty rough area and reach the AFL system, never mind play 200+ games, kick 360+ goals and garner an AA blazer, after going to a public school is sadly too rare especially in WA.
And to Nathan, thanks for taking 15 years out of your time to descend among us mortals. A lot is said about your leaping ability but my favourite memory of watching you live will be you somehow bursting from a rolling maul of 12-15 bodies with the ball, leaving even the players with no idea how you did it. It's been a pleasure.
That's enough diatribe. Sadly I do think any realistic odds of winning the flag lengthened considerably with the Brisbane defeat and missing the top four. But I also think our age profile means we are well placed to contend in the future, whether you think JL is the man or not, although we all said that 3 years ago.
But first, just get past this lot.
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sing us a song you’re a Freo fan 
