Would the AFL be reconsidering their decision to expand into the Gold Coast?
The Suns have never played finals, a streak that will continue again in 2021, and only 7,000 people turned up to watch their 50-point loss to Port Adelaide on Saturday afternoon.
By contrast, Launceston’s UTAS Stadium was packed with 15,000 people to see Essendon take on Hawthorn.
David King wonders whether the AFL would be starting to wonder whether to call time on the Gold Coast experiment.
“Shouldn’t the Gold Coast be looking like that (Launceston on Sunday) by now?” King told SEN’s Whateley.
“Or is it just going to be another code that fails on the Gold Coast. It’s not their fault.
“Mark Evans and Craig Cameron and Stuart Dew. They’re all great football people working as hard as they can to get this team to fire.
“They’re not winning. They’re consistently losing players at the end of every year. High quality talent. They’re almost a short-term development ground for other clubs.
“It hasn’t come together, it hasn’t worked for any coach. It’s starting to make me think. Do you have to put a timeframe on Gold Coast?
“And say look, if we’re still having this conversation in five years’ time do we have to look at it? Do we have to make the tough call and rip the band-aid off and say ‘nope, we’re not going to 19 teams. We’re staying at 18 and if you guys can’t get this right in another five years we’re out’.
“‘We’ve spent enough money here, why can’t we spend that money in Tassie and invest in a place that already loves footy’. It’s the first time that I’ve actually thought this is worth investing in.”
King added that the Gold Coast concerns are less about 2021 and more about the immediate future beyond it.
“I’m not even worried so much about today. It’s more, when are we going to see it?” he said.
“If you said to me ‘hey look this is the core of a really good list, they’re all signing, they’re all staying, they’re going to do this, this and this.
“Don’t give me Auskick numbers. I’m not interested in Auskick numbers. We’re too far down the path now for Auskick numbers going up by 20 per cent. I don’t care about that.
“If you go to Tassie I guarantee you the Auskick numbers will go through the roof there.
“At what point do you have to look at it? No one wants to be the administrator that says we’re out of here.
“Gil McLachlan doesn’t want to be that person. Steve Hocking too. They don’t want that on their CV. I get that. At some point you have to say ‘when do we cut our losses here?’
“And it won’t be wins and losses, it’ll be directional stuff. At what year will they be coming good? When will they be a viable challenger for the top eight? They haven’t been that for a while.”
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