Club Focus Gold Coast 2020 - Atkins, Markov, Hollands

AFL Club Focus

Do they still need the pick 19 priority pick in 2021?

  • Yes

    Votes: 7 15.9%
  • No

    Votes: 37 84.1%

  • Total voters
    44

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Gold Coast club focus thread
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Data from footywire. To check the draft order (updated weekly) see the thread here.
 

Johnny Bananas

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I agree with that but what does giving pick 1 to a club with a terrible retention record help with? The player will just leave in 2 years.
Because the likely top two picks this year are best mates, so if anything giving them the top two picks helps the likelihood of retention.

They need more off field assistance to build their club so a) it becomes a place young players want to stay and b) they can attract better quality mature players in trades.
They've solved a lot of their off field issues now that they're based in buildings instead of demountables. What specific measures will "attract better quality mature players in trades"? Not every club is lucky enough to hire a Chris Fagan. The only thing I can see actually being a big enough measure to help them is removing the off field spending cap for a few years so they can spend more on welfare.
 

Jirik13

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I agree with that but what does giving pick 1 to a club with a terrible retention record help with? The player will just leave in 2 years. They need more off field assistance to build their club so a) it becomes a place young players want to stay and b) they can attract better quality mature players in trades.
A bit of myth with retention. Only one player left after 2 years - Caddy! All players Suns wanted to keep - Prestia, JOM, Lynch, Ablett, May - left after 5+ years looking for success. At present, most important players for Suns have already extended their contracts this year. The only remaining are Martin (probably gone, similar story to Lynch, May) and Ah Chee.

Total revamp of the club including facilities and personnel during the last 18 month should help with retention. The only thing Suns need now is start winning :). Healthy list would help. OK, Rowell + Anderson, extra salary cap, extra soft cap, better academy area would also help.
 
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Peel67skin

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I agree with that but what does giving pick 1 to a club with a terrible retention record help with? The player will just leave in 2 years. They need more off field assistance to build their club so a) it becomes a place young players want to stay and b) they can attract better quality mature players in trades.
Winning 3-4 games more a season definitely help retention. If you look at GWS they can't retain players but they get reasonable draft pick back from Carlton and other club and refresh their list. ( eg taranto, caldwell, Hill etc). Drafting some local like Shipley and Green help too. You can't do it all in one go.
 
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thurls64

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Good post there thurls64.

There's a bigger picture in play here for the AFL. It's more than the win/loss record of the Suns that the AFL are judging the success of the team on.

Of course they'd like them to be winning games, that's a no brainer. But they were brought into the comp to take on the NRL and to grow the game in a rugby dominated environment.

People calling for the team to be removed from the competition are short sighted and have no idea of what the AFL are trying to achieve.
amen brother
 

ItsAllAboutMe

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Gold Coast need senior players with great leadership qualities to drive the culture..

If I am the suns I would be approaching the Crows and getting a deal for Tex Walker and Bryce Gibbs, I suspect the crows would be happy to lose both who are on big salaries.

Walker was once considered the best captain in the game, his form has been hot and cold but i think the other attributes he could bring to the young Suns list could out weigh this. He also would sit at full forward and allow Lukosious to develop along side him.

Gibbs, is out of favour with the Crows so probably just happy to go anywhere but would add a touch of mature class to the midfield or half back lines and allow Rowell to develop on his own terms.
 
Sep 28, 2011
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A bit of myth with retention. Only one player left after 2 years - Caddy! All players Suns wanted to keep - Prestia, JOM, Lynch, Ablett, May - left after 5+ years looking for success. At present, most important players for Suns have already extended their contracts this year. The only remaining are Martin (probably gone, similar story to Lynch, May) and Ah Chee.

Total revamp of the club including facilities and personnel during the last 18 month should help with retention. The only thing Suns need now is start winning :). Healthy list would help. OK, Rowell + Anderson, extra salary cap, extra soft cap, better academy area would also help.
Don't let facts get in the way of a good story ;)
 

HavUEvaSeenTheRain

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A bit of myth with retention. Only one player left after 2 years - Caddy! All players Suns wanted to keep - Prestia, JOM, Lynch, Ablett, May - left after 5+ years looking for success. At present, most important players for Suns have already extended their contracts this year. The only remaining are Martin (probably gone, similar story to Lynch, May) and Ah Chee.

Total revamp of the club including facilities and personnel during the last 18 month should help with retention. The only thing Suns need now is start winning :). Healthy list would help. OK, Rowell + Anderson, extra salary cap, extra soft cap, better academy area would also help.
But that only because you are paying stupid overs?
 

Jirik13

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But that only because you are paying stupid overs?
New list management, no stupid overs this time.

Witts, Swallow, Thompson, Day and young core Miller, Wright, Ainsworth, Bowes, Macpherson, Powell, Rankine, Ballard are actually happy to be at GC. I know it's hard to comprehend this for some Melbourne media, fans.
 
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Sep 28, 2011
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Gold Coast need senior players with great leadership qualities to drive the culture..

If I am the suns I would be approaching the Crows and getting a deal for Tex Walker and Bryce Gibbs, I suspect the crows would be happy to lose both who are on big salaries.

Walker was once considered the best captain in the game, his form has been hot and cold but i think the other attributes he could bring to the young Suns list could out weigh this. He also would sit at full forward and allow Lukosious to develop along side him.

Gibbs, is out of favour with the Crows so probably just happy to go anywhere but would add a touch of mature class to the midfield or half back lines and allow Rowell to develop on his own terms.
We did that last year getting good characters into the club. The likes of Horlin Smith and Miles who came from successful cultures to come in and help drive standards, and the likes of Hombsch, who are blokes with good character who can show the younger players how to do it. The likes of GHS doesn't get a game every week but helps drive that internal culture forward, he was elected to the leadership group after only being at the club for a couple of months. We also have the likes of Andrew Swallow as a development coach who has experience being a leader at the footy club, he also runs around in the 2's and can provide that leadership to our younger/academy players as well.

We also have the likes of Witts and Swallow as our captains, who are now on long term deals buying into the club culture.

Tex Walker I am not massively convinced improves our forward line that much, especially since we have Wright and Day re-sign earlier this year, I can't see us adding another key forward.

Don't really want to be taking Gibbs on. Talent wise, he may still have it, but I wouldn't want to be paying his wages, if Adelaide offered to stump up his wages, then I would think about it.
 

ItsAllAboutMe

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We did that last year getting good characters into the club. The likes of Horlin Smith and Miles who came from successful cultures to come in and help drive standards, and the likes of Hombsch, who are blokes with good character who can show the younger players how to do it. The likes of GHS doesn't get a game every week but helps drive that internal culture forward, he was elected to the leadership group after only being at the club for a couple of months. We also have the likes of Andrew Swallow as a development coach who has experience being a leader at the footy club, he also runs around in the 2's and can provide that leadership to our younger/academy players as well.

We also have the likes of Witts and Swallow as our captains, who are now on long term deals buying into the club culture.

Tex Walker I am not massively convinced improves our forward line that much, especially since we have Wright and Day re-sign earlier this year, I can't see us adding another key forward.

Don't really want to be taking Gibbs on. Talent wise, he may still have it, but I wouldn't want to be paying his wages, if Adelaide offered to stump up his wages, then I would think about it.

Sounds like you have it all covered and should be playing finals next year.
 
Sep 28, 2011
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Sounds like you have it all covered and should be playing finals next year.
Haha would trade our #1 pick to have a good run with injuries for a season to see how our list actually matches up across the competition. Both our starting KPD having season ending injuries does hurt us, allowing the likes of Sean Mckernan to look like Wayne Carey.

There are defiantly holes in our list, but I'm unconvinced a cooked Taylor Walker and Gibbs (who is sounds like he is clearly having off field issues) would help.

We need midfielders as well as outside speed, players like Greenwood from the Crows and Hill from Freo have been linked in the past.

We are past the point of wanting battlers with good leadership. We need players that can contribute. That is why Hodge to Brisbane has succeeded. He has leadership in spades, but he is in their best 22 as well.
 

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Johnny Bananas

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Gold Coast need senior players with great leadership qualities to drive the culture..

If I am the suns I would be approaching the Crows and getting a deal for Tex Walker and Bryce Gibbs, I suspect the crows would be happy to lose both who are on big salaries.
You're advocating they bring players to improve the culture, and then suggest Gibbs? That's odd, given the reports about him. If there's any Adelaide player the Suns should be looking to get for culture it's Betts, he's a real class act.
 

Darkyprotector

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They should talk to the pies
Offer pendels the captains band
Get sack up there
Get Ben Reid as a chance going forward
Recruit Thomas as a local boy

That's what should happen
3 experienced leaders
 

Jirik13

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The priority one for Suns has to be to limit injuries. Suns started season with missing 4, the last 8-9 games Suns were missing 9-11 best 22 while best defender Thompson gone for the whole season second one Collins after round 9 and now they lost Hombsh - #3. Take that number from any team and see how they go. Despite injuries, fielded most games the youngest team, getting games into draftees, Suns had only 2 terrible games (total lost of confidence) and a couple of bad quarters. Suns were in 7 games within 10 points.

It could be interesting against Pies this weekend as Suns got pressure back and are getting back 3 high quality players Bowes, Ainsworh, Martin although not in top form after long lay off (Bowes, Ainsworth) and Pies got significant injuries list now too.

I understand people from outside want to add leadership but Suns have enough. Nothing is wrong with culture now. I can't imagine better captains than Swallow and Witts. Lynch and May were absolute joke compared to them. Then you got Harbrow, Hanley and other mature players - Days, Thompson, Lemmens, Sexton. Suns brought great characters in mature players, notably Hombsh, GHS, Miles. Our young core are developing nicely as leaders - Miller, Fiorini, Macpherson, Bowes, Ainsworth.

As I mentioned previously, what Suns need beside limiting injuries, is still 1-2 top draftees talent this year and ideally a couple of high quality players in 24-26 age bracket - extra salary cap would help (will only happen when Suns starts winning, not this year), be allowed to use soft cap 100% (1M under beginning this season) or better exceed it to make performance/medical and other footy sections top notch, better academy area would help too.

I would also like to see Prescott replaced with a new assistant coach (McVeigh, Richardson).
 
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HavUEvaSeenTheRain

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New list management, no stupid overs this time.

Witts, Swallow, Thompson, Day and young core Miller, Wright, Ainsworth, Bowes, Macpherson, Powell, Rankine, Ballard are actually happy to be at GC. I know it's hard to comprehend this for some Melbourne media, fans.

It’s not hard to comprehend, I just think it’s a strong possibility that money could be a big driver when you listen to player managers talk about it on the radio. It’s no different to my club who probably attracted players by doing the same and considering Curnow is supposedly on $800k next year probably over pay ours too.
 
Apr 24, 2018
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One extra game every week due to GWS/Suns existence means extra 55-60M for AFL according to the broadcast deal so nobody is losing money.

As far as Suns bleeding money, I suggest you to check out clubs annual reports. Yes, in 2018 AFL distributed 25M to Suns but at the same time it allocated 21M to the club you support, St Kilda, that was around like forever! 21M was also distributed to GWS and Brisbane. If you go further back, St Kilda received essentially the same distributions from AFL as Suns, only 1-2M less!

At the same time check out sponsorship numbers. In most years, Suns are equal or even better than St. Kilda!

I don't know, but just maybe St. Kilda or North Melbourne should relocate to Tasmania as national competition with 9 clubs in Melbourne for sure does not make sense especially when several clubs in Melbourne need to be prop up by AFL.

Footy is growing and doing well in QLD at grass root level. Because AFL totally mess up Suns set up does not mean there is no growing market for extra team in QLD. Suns are back on the right track since Evans join them 2 years ago. Give it a couple of years and you will have 2 strong QLD teams.
Mate the suns might be getting a dividend similar to other clubs but your not counting the tens of millions in extra payments you are receiving each season to keep you solvent with the amount of members and the size of the crowds you are getting at the moment there is no way you would be surving of the dividend alone the numbers just do not add up !
 
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Mate the suns might be getting a dividend similar to other clubs but your not counting the tens of millions in extra payments you are receiving each season to keep you solvent with the amount of members and the size of the crowds you are getting at the moment there is no way you would be surving of the dividend alone the numbers just do not add up !
Where are these extra payments you are referring to, aren't the AFL numbers financial numbers public? (If they are there and there is proof I stand corrected) Initially, the set up, yeah we had hundreds of millions put in, but we are starting to slowly turn it around. We have/are renegotiated the awful stadium deal we had originally. We have our second highest membership result ever this year. We pulled 16k on the weekend versus Essendon as well. Its not all doom and gloom hopefully we can start seeing more results on the field to start pulling crowds back to the times we were pulling 15-20k a game consistently (currently avg a bit under 12k this year, including 1 game in Townsville).

Do we need to improve? Of course! But there have been plans for the future as well, such as building and running a child care centre on the land that the GC Suns owns as well to diversify the money coming in.
 
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Jirik13

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Mate the suns might be getting a dividend similar to other clubs but your not counting the tens of millions in extra payments you are receiving each season to keep you solvent with the amount of members and the size of the crowds you are getting at the moment there is no way you would be surving of the dividend alone the numbers just do not add up !
Are you suggesting that annual financial reports by each club and AFL are joke and there are some secret payments from AFL?
 
Apr 24, 2018
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Are you suggesting that annual financial reports by each club and AFL are joke and there are some secret payments from AFL?
im not saying the suns are the only club but It’s know secret mate the afl openly admit it who do you think pays the millions to run your academy every year who set up the neafl and pays for your reserves to fly around eastern Australia ever second week these are large costs that the afl provide on top of your dividends each year!
 

Peel67skin

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im not saying the suns are the only club but It’s know secret mate the afl openly admit it who do you think pays the millions to run your academy every year who set up the neafl and pays for your reserves to fly around eastern Australia ever second week these are large costs that the afl provide on top of your dividends each year!
Is a know secret a secret?
 
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