SMALL BEGINNINGS

SMALL BEGINNINGS by The Oracle 

Until yesterday the general consensus was that the AFL's new franchise team, the Gold Coast Suns were in for a painful maiden AFL season and that they would struggle to come close to winning a game. Their honeymoon  period with the public and the press was already over after only three matches.

Winless and with a percentage in the 30s they were gaining few friends. Their marquee player and captain Gary Ablett was severly beaten up by the media over his alleged lack of preparation after the Western Bulldogs game which resulted in him missing the following week against Melbourne. Vice captain Campbell Brown copped a four week suspension out of two reports from the Bulldogs game and a heap of criticism for his lack of remorse as a result of the incidents involved. Nathan Krakouer was simply unfit and struggling to get a game.

Other established players such as Nathan Bock, Jared Brennan, Josh Fraser and Jarrod Harbrow had done little to suggest that they are more than mere fill ins which  left Michael Rischitelli as perhaps the only established AFL player to set the standard and even he wasn't matching the form that won him best and fairest honours at Brisbane. 

Players like David Harris, Danny Stanley and Sam Iles who has been cast off by others were unlikely to be more than hard slogging footsoldiers and one had to wonder whether Nathan Ablett who walked out of a premiership club had the necessary commitment to make it in the AFL big time.

Michael Coad, the other more mature age player had just ripped a hammy off the bone and his return was unlikely until late in the season if at all.

Then there was rugby league convert Karmichael Hunt who was something of a curiosity - a million dollar marketing gimmick who surely couldn't really play football?

For all that, the Suns had a silver lining and they had it in spades was young untapped talent that would one day be part of a powerful team. The likes of Zac Smith, David Swallow, Charlie Dixon, Harley Bennell, Josh Toy,  Brandon Matera, Trent McKenzie, Maverick Weller, Dion Prestia, Luke Russell, Daniel Gorringe,  and Seb Tape, the as a yet untried but highly rated Sam Day and a few others are destined to become household names. 

The feeling was that it was only a matter of time, good preparation and a capacity to stave off other clubs from poaching these players when the salary cap advantage disappears for success to come but in the meantime they faced lean times and some barren years before they could make it happen. 

Fortunately for the Suns, the game has developed a good following on the Gold Coast and many supporters understood the need for patience in these circumstances. The mild weather and the holiday lifestyle on the Coast (not to mention the fat pay cheques) and the state of the art facilities at their new stadium at Carrara would be enough to keep most players happy in the formative years of the new franchise.

This perspective remains in place but a lot of opinions about the short term prospects for this team changed yesterday in a little over 30 minutes of football. Late in the third quarter of their game against Port Adelaide at AAMI Stadium they trailed by 40 points and were seemingly on the way to yet another hiding. But a couple of late goals before the final break gave them a sniff and led by Ablett, Rischitelli and Brennan, the young legs moved up a gear with Swallow, Bennell, Matera and McKenzie playing on adrenaline to step up. Fittingly, the winning goal was snapped by one of the young guns in Russell. They had snatched a famous victory. 

The Suns are still light on for body strength and experience and they are  still not expected to win many matches this year but this team, with its focus on youth, is definitely going places.

The question is raised as to how will the other new boys from Greater Western Sydney fare when they enter the competition in 2012?

Giant's coach Kevin Sheedy has even more recruiting concessions available to him than Guy McKenna had at the Gold Coast and it remains to be seen how he and his football department handle the assignment.

Like the Suns the have a big rugby name but Israel Folau is, by all reports, struggling at NEAFL level where the formative Giants team is playing out this season. The standard there appears to be much lower than the VFL where the Suns' young team started their journey last year. 

Sheedy has already foreshadowed that he will be targetting more big bodies than did the Suns and I suspect he will want to select/draft more experienced key position players to help prevent major blowouts that would be a major turn off for Sydney's theatregoing sporting audiences.

For these reasons we can expect a different approach from the Giants compared to that of the Suns and, from a Melbourne perspective, I would suggest that the rumours of a Tom Scully switch to GWS on a million dollar a year contract is a remote proposition. The youngster who is currently plagued by a knee injury is good but won't be anything near the marquee player who can make an impact in the harbour city from the word go. They need to spend their money on players with size and experience, players like Jimmy Bartel. They also need to spread their money around and while their salary cap limit is not inconsiderable, this factor will affect their capacity to splash millions about on more than one or two players.

The other interesting aspect is the rule that allows GWS the opportunity to trade off four players born between January 1994 and April 1994 for players and/or draft choices. This gives Melbourne an opportunity to secure father/son signing Jack Viney a year before he would have otherwise been able to be drafted. Viney would potentially cost the club a first round selection in the 2012 national draft so a trade would benefit both clubs. The Giants would get a player or players and would be more tempted to deal for a father/son pick than anyone else because Viney is already out of the draft pool. 

The Demons are in the position where, like the new franchises, they have a young developing team with a number of early draft picks starting to make their names in the sport. They are also a couple of years further along the track compared to the new clubs and therefore will be starting to look to the trades to cover gaps in their list.

One of the few Gold Coast banners at yesterday's game carried the message , "From small beginnings come great things". Likewise the Demons have come from small beginnings and while the journey is taking time and the road has many twists and turns, the message should resonate with fans of our club.