Gold Coast’s improvement under Damien Hardwick has been lauded by Collingwood coach Craig McRae after the Suns’ fork-in-the-road defeat of the defending AFL premiers.
The Suns moved to 8-7 and are on the cusp of the top eight after an 11-point win over the fifth-placed Magpies at Carrara on Saturday.
Ahead by 32 points, the Suns conceded six consecutive goals to trail by one with four minutes to play.
But they rallied to kick the final two goals of the game to notch a crucial victory, their eighth from eight home games this season.
The Suns’ established stars all performed but it was the efforts of emerging on-baller Sam Flanders, fresh-faced wing Bodhi Uwland and rejuvenated forward Ben Long that got them over the line.
At 7-7 going into the match, the Suns’ 2024 fortunes had closely followed those of a year earlier, when then-coach Stuart Dew had them sniffing a maiden finals campaign.
But in the corresponding game last season the Magpies wiped the floor with the Suns in a Gold Coast hiding that swiftly led to Dew’s axing.
McRae, who learned his coaching trade under Hardwick at Richmond, offered a critique of the Suns under the triple-premiership mentor.
The Collingwood coach said he’d hoped the game would be played in a more frantic fashion, but that the Suns went off script with a new-found composure.
“They’re a maturing team,” he said.
“They did so many things that they hadn’t been doing in previous seasons … the right things at the right time.
“They looked really well-drilled and imposed that on us tonight.”
The Suns will get the chance to end their run of road-trip losses when they take on North Melbourne at Marvel Stadium next Saturday.
“The process of winning, what that looks like … our guys are starting to understand a bit about that,” Hardwick said.
“Hopefully this is a step forward for us.
“It’s what we do with this win – there’s a lot of sides capable of playing finals and we’re one.”
Source Agencies
