On the morning of the 31st July, 2021 an aircraft carrying the Melbourne team for its recently rescheduled game against the Gold Coast Suns was diverted to Brisbane Airport after the Queensland Government made a snap decision to lock down the South East of the State. Forced to return home to play the game against the Suns at an empty Marvel Stadium on the following day, the  dominant Demons easily won that encounter and never looked back. The rest became history. 

The opposition on that day was cooked after a long disrupted season, ravaged with injury, a young side lost in a tough competitive system and bereft of confidence. Things are going to be far different when they clash at Metricon Stadium on Saturday night. They were unbeaten in the preseason and opened proceedings for 2022 with a win over the Eagles — their first ever victory in WA, after booting eight goals straight in the final term.

The Suns’ young guns are strutting around like true winners, they’re playing on home turf this week won and they have every reason to feel confident this week because after all, they are champions of Round Two having amassed a 4 zip record in that Round over the past four seasons.

The catch is that they’re coming up against the reigning premiers who were in good form in the opening Round so their young guns in Rowell, Anderson, Rankine and Lukosious will need to be at their absolute best again to make it five in a row. 

But this time, the Demons are a fair way from having their best team on the ground with five premiership defenders under a cloud on the injury list. They are Michael Hibberd (calf), Jake Lever (foot), Harrison Petty (calf), Trent Rivers (knee) and Christian Salem (knee) and at ref time of writing, only Rivers is considered a chance to play on Saturday night. 

Coach Simon Goodwin needs to shuffle players around which could see Angus Brayshaw and Tom McDonald playing in defence again, joined by the likes of Jayden Hunt, Joel Smith and Adam Tomlinson.

Whilst the shuffling will also have consequences on the rest of the line up, Melbourne is fortunate to have a solid and ever-reliable, star studded midfield and those hardworking small forwards ready to contribute to another Demon victory.

The Gold Coast Suns are up and coming but I expect a total eclipse is on the cards.

Melbourne by 38 points.

THE GAME

Gold Coast Suns v Melbourne at Marvel Stadium Saturday 26th March, 2022 at 8.00pm

HEAD TO HEAD

Overall - Gold Coast Suns 3 wins Melbourne 12 wins

At Metricon Stadium - Gold Coast Suns 1 win Melbourne 2 wins

Past five matches - Gold Coast Suns 0 wins Melbourne 5 wins

The Coaches - Dew 0 wins Goodwin 5 wins

MEDIA

TV - live and on demand on Kayo and live on Foxtel. Check your local guides.

Radio - check your local guides.

THE LAST TIME THEY MET

Melbourne 18.20.128 defeated Gold Coast Suns 4.6.30 at Marvel Stadium, Round 20, 2021

One of the passengers on that flight north in late July was debutant Jake Bowey who made the AFL’s longest trip for a first up game but when the time came to play, he was certainly no passenger. The 98 point win was a great start for the youngster and he continues to play winning football every time he steps on the field. May that run continue well into the future. 

THE TEAMS

GOLD COAST SUNS

B:  D.Swallow 24 S.Collins 25 S.Lemmens 23
HB: R.Atkins 2 C.Ballard 10 W.Powell 27
C: J.Sharp 20 T.Miller 11 - C B.Ellis 4
HF: N.Holman 7 L.Casboult 30 J.Lukosius 13
F: S.Flanders 26 M.Chol 1 B.Ainsworth 9
Foll: J.Witts 28 - C M. Rowell 18 N.Anderson 15
I/C: A.Davies 5 B.Fiorini 8 C.Graham 46 A. Sexton 6
Sub: D.Macpherson 44 Emerg: J. Corbett 19

In: R.Atkins S.Flanders

Out: 

MELBOURNE

B: A. Tomlinson 20 S.May 1 J.Hunt 29 
HB: T.Rivers 24 J.Smith 44 J.Bowey 17 
C: A.Brayshaw 10 C.Oliver 13 E.Langdon 15
HF: K.Pickett 36 B.Brown 50 J.Harmes 4
F: B.Fritsch 31 T.McDonald 25 A.Neal-Bullen 30
Foll: M.Gawn - C 11 C.Petracca 5 J.Viney 7
I/C: L.Jackson 6 C.Spargo 9 J.Jordon 23 T.Sparrow 32
Sub: T.Bedford 12 Emerg: J.Melksham 18 S.Weideman 26 L.Dunstan 27 

In: T.Rivers 

Out: C.Salem (knee)

Injury List: Round 2

Kade Chandler - Abdominal | Test
Michael Hibberd - Calf | Test
Jake Lever - Foot | Test
Trent Rivers - Knee | Test
Harry Petty - Calf | 3-4 Weeks
Daniel Turner - Foot | 4-6 Weeks
Christian Salem - Knee | 6-8 Weeks

I assume our prep for this game will involve 6 hours of flying and sitting on the tarmac for 8 hours.

 

Don't change a winning formula...

I hope the boys don’t go in underestimating them, their win last week (putting aside that it was against a very weakened WC team) could be a real confidence booster for them. 

I’m hoping we get off to a strong start much the same as last week and just keep them at arms length all game before breaking them. Would love for Kozzie to have a big one. 

5 minutes ago, Pates said:

I hope the boys don’t go in underestimating them, their win last week (putting aside that it was against a very weakened WC team) could be a real confidence booster for them. 

I’m hoping we get off to a strong start much the same as last week and just keep them at arms length all game before breaking them. Would love for Kozzie to have a big one. 

Also expect a scrap of a game due to the humidity. They have a few good players now in that midfield. Expect them to play with a point to prove. 

Let’s be honest here, we should win by 50+ points. 
 

We were pretty clinical if not rusty against the dogs. We still put them away easier than the score line suggests. I was there and for the first time in my life, I wasn’t worried that we were going to lose at any time during the match. Bloody amazing feeling!
 

The way the suns played last week was littered with errors against a WC team that had what, 16 players out?

The Bulldogs are a waaaayyyyyy better side than Gold Coast.

When I say we ‘should’ win, I’m more confident against better teams than I am against teams we might not respect. We lost to Collingwood and Adelaide last year because both teams went in harder and had more intensity than we did. We played like we just assumed it would happen. All teams will have a laser focus on how we do things this season. Hopefully we realise that every game is a tough game this year and that every team is going to come out HARD against us. 
 

We are the hunted now, we have to be ruthless and put these easier wins in the bank early as, the longer this season goes, opposition teams will have a chance to see what works against us from every opposition and they’ll adapt it into their own plans. 

Obviously I’ll take any win, but to be honest, I’ll be annoyed if we don’t slam this team as we bloody well should.   

 

Edited March 23, 20223 yr by BoBo

31 minutes ago, CYB said:

Also expect a scrap of a game due to the humidity. They have a few good players now in that midfield. Expect them to play with a point to prove. 

They are Garbage, with a Garbage history, with Garbage traditions with a very average list and more average coach. We should win by 150 plus pionts. Having said that Dees comfortably by 35 pionts

We can't take this lightly, the Suns have won their last 4 round 2 matches, and always play better in the early rounds before fading mid-late season. The longest road trip in footy off a 6 day break won't help them, but we'll need to be switched on early so they don't get too much believe up.

As mentioned above it will be hot and humid we need to take control early and kick straight don’t keep them in the game. Dees by 46 points.!!

To paraphrase another poster ( let me know if it's you )    The dees will smash this mob ……...Suns by 27 

I'd love a big win but GC are developing nicely and have quality in all areas now. 

Mids are strong, their key talls in Powell and Ballard look good and their forward line has some spark 

 

I expect a scrap with Dees eventually running over the top of the younger list, Dees by 54

Rain forecast, so expect a wet game...

Having watched the Suns game last week, I think we are a 3+ goal a quarter better side than they are.  The quality of footy in the 3 games on Sunday was miles behind the first 6 games of the round.

Any win less than 50 points will be an opportunity lost.  I'm expecting 72 points.  I'm not usually that bullish, but the Suns left me incredibly underwhelmed.  

2 minutes ago, Vagg said:

Rain forecast, so expect a wet game...

it doesnt look that bad, but it will be wet as you say and with dodgy groundball skills in the backline being an area of vulnerability .. this will most likely be their plan of attack. Hopefully Goodwin is ready.