Brisbane great Jonathan Brown has suggested Gold Coast officials have been “walking on eggshells” for “a long time” amid fears they’ll drive players out of the club.
And the former Coleman medallist has linked the issue to the Suns’ troubling 1-3 start to the 2023 season, a year in which the internal expectation was playing finals, saying hard standards aren’t being driven.
For the second time in three weeks the Suns’ effort came under fire after a bad loss at Marvel Stadium, this time in a 53-point thumping by St Kilda, with “unforgivable” errors and big lapses of concentration.
Watch every match of every round of the 2023 Toyota AFL Premiership Season LIVE on Kayo Sports. New to Kayo? Start your free trial now >
“After quarter-time, I thought it was the type of footy you’d see in their initial years of their formation as a football club,” Essendon great Matthew Lloyd said on Nine’s Sunday Footy Show.
Brown, who now lives on the Gold Coast, suggested on Fox Footy’s On the Couch there was a link between the players’ languid performances and fears the go-home factor would see some of their top names leave the expansion club.
“The challenge of getting a list to be accountable and play with resilience and toughness and competitiveness, you’ve got to make tough buggers out of them, so you’ve got to drive some hard standards,” Brown said on Fox Footy, then posing his thought as a question to colleague Nathan Buckley.
“Do you think the fact that the Suns maybe have to walk on eggshells, the coaching staff and the people around the footy club, because they’re worried about losing players to homesickness. Do you think that’s anything?”
Buckley responded: “It’s chicken and the egg, because if you don’t create those solid standards – and I’m not in there – then you don’t get performance.
“If you don’t get performance, you get the 1-3 four weeks in, and this is when players start having conversations of whether they’re gonna go back home or not.”
But Melbourne champion Garry Lyon went back to Brown’s question, feeling there was more under the surface than just a query.
“It’s a pointed question you ask, Jonathan, if I may say. Is that your understanding?” Lyon asked.
Brown replied: “I feel as if that is the situation. I believe that’s been the problem at Gold Coast Suns for a long time.”
Lyon clarified: “The fear to drive really hard standards for the fear you might be losing players?”
Brown continued: “I saw it at Brisbane in the late 90s. A man with a reputation almost bigger than the game (Leigh Matthews) that can come in and say hey, you’re jumping on my bus or you’re out of here.
“Not sure if Stuart Dew has been able to have that impact, you definitely know a Ross Lyon or an Alastair Clarkson would’ve had that impact on that playing group. ‘Now boys, if you want to go home and see mummy, you can go and see mummy, we don’t need you’.”
Last off-season Izak Rankine joined a lengthy list of highly-drafted players who asked for a trade from the Suns back to their home state.
However Victorian young guns Matt Rowell and Noah Anderson are among those who’ve signed lengthy new deals to stick around.
