A battle of the mind and a do-or-die showdown against Essendon stand between Gold Coast and a club-first AFL finals campaign. A Suns’ victory against the injury-ravaged Bombers already on a 12-match losing streak should be a mere formality if the stakes weren’t so high in the last game of the home-and-away season on Wednesday night.
A 15th win of the year would be enough to lift the Suns from ninth spot and into the finals places, with either side of about a five-goal margin to decide whether they land in seventh or eighth. Western Bulldogs might be blessed to have a list stacked with top-end talent but for now are left holding out for a miracle that Gold Coast slip up for a third week running and let the Dogs hang on to a finals place instead.
A top-eight spot is in the Suns’ hands, as it has been for several weeks. And was again when they were handed a harsh lesson on Friday about what can happen when a talented team freezes up and the opposition makes the most of their own free hit. Gold Coast had just as much to play for when they travelled to face another wounded side in Port Adelaide, with a chance to not only lock in the club’s breakthrough finals berth but also keep their hopes alive of securing a double chance.
After a bright start, the Suns were lukewarm. The Power wanted it more. With their finals hopes long gone and a new era on the horizon, Port Adelaide played with the freedom of a side that had nothing to lose. Crucially, they also had their own motivations that went beyond end-of-season pride. The Power were charged with the emotion of wanting to send off coach Ken Hinkley and former captain Travis Boak in style.
The Bombers are unlikely to have similar intangibles to draw on when they seek to put a forgettable season behind them with an upset that would live long in the memory. They might have a couple of stalwarts moving on but they also have an injury list as long as this season has at times seemed.
With banged-up veterans and mid-season punts dropped into their key posts, Essendon could not get the job done for the 12th week in a row even as they faced rivals Carlton in captain Zach Merrett’s 250th match. This week, with one foot already in the departure lounge, there is next to no expectation on the Bombers while all the pressure mounts on the slowly rising Suns.
This has been a season of breaking hoodoos for Gold Coast. The club snapped its longest losing streak against an opposition team when beating Melbourne for the first time since 2014. They put a horror record on the road behind them by winning half their matches away from their Carrara and Darwin homes. They defeated the Lions for just the second time in 14 matches with their biggest winning margin, in what is now more importantly one of three victories this year over the eventual top-four sides.
There are still more venues for the Suns to conquer and opposition sides to tear down but the opportunity for the 15-year-old club to reach the finals for the first time is suddenly the only record that matters now.
The Suns arguably lacked maturity and melted under the pressure of the occasion as they blew the chance to secure a maiden top-eight finish with one game to play. They lost their run and dare from the back half and played too safe through the midfield when the match was on the line.
The inspirational young skipper, Noah Anderson, came to life in the final term but even with all the momentum behind them in the dying stages the Suns fluffed their lines with a bigger stage in their sights. Ben Long has enjoyed a career-best season and Mac Andrew is a proven match-winner but both missed critical shots on goal at the death in a costly four-point thriller.
Gold Coast’s coach, Damien Hardwick, said after the loss that he thought “the umpires got caught up in the emotion of the game”. He could have pointed the same finger of blame toward his own players for not being ruthless enough when they were on top early and too guarded when the Power challenged them late.
The three-time premiership coach will surely be putting the heat on his Suns behind closed doors. Hardwick would be well within his rights to call back on his fiery statement last year that the club needs to “grow the fuck up”. After 15 years of mostly on-field failure and their fair share of misery, the time has arrived for the Suns to do just that.
But as has been proven many times before, pressure and the burden of creating history can do strange things, without even thinking about carrying that weight and more into a 16th season.
