King-sized result: Gold Coast stun St Kilda after coach sacking

After the worst possible week, the Gold Coast Suns have got a classic bounce back under a new coach, securing a dour win over St Kilda – and a maiden victory for caretaker Steven King – to keep their slim finals hopes alive.

The Suns sacked their coach Stuart Dew on Monday night. Yet they are now just a game, plus percentage out of the eight. This is not to say they can or deserve to make it, but in a tightly congested finals race, they’re still in the hunt.

And in doing so, they have dealt a severe blow to the struggling, disappointing Saints, who are themselves now in danger of slipping from sixth, at the beginning of this round, to out of the eight altogether. They have now lost four of their last five games.

Arguably, they had more on the line. But this was a game they butchered. They were off from the start, wilting under the glare of a fired-up Suns unit. They fumbled and stumbled, and they were beaten to the ball: contested possessions were 153–130 the Suns’ way.

The game was probably lost late in the third quarter, when a floating handball missed Jack Sinclair, and was cleaned up by Touk Miller. Miller handed off to Rory Atkins, an unlikely match-winner, but Miller bombed it through.

That made the margin 34 points. There was still a little resistance from the Saints to come, but they’d managed just three goals to that point, and weren’t capable of the sort of burst that might have poached a game they were never in.

Too often, the Suns leave too much to the same handful of players. But this time, while they got solid contributions from Noah Anderson, Matt Rowell and Jarrod Witts, their victory was marked by a number of stellar performances from lesser lights.

There was former Crow Atkins, who has struggled to hold his place at the Suns, but excelled with 32 possessions and two goals. Sam Flanders has taken time to find his feet at the top level but recently has excelled in the midfield. He had 33 touches.

And there was Jack Lukosius – not so unexpected, but his four goals were crucial in a low-scoring game. Lukosius has 31 goals for the year, including three bags of five (all matches the Suns won).