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Mummy sends Lyons flying0:25
AFL: Shane Mumford has cleaned up Gold Coast recruit Jarryd Lyons with a big hit in the first quarter of the Giants' clash with the Suns.
- April 1st 2017
- 20 hours ago
- /video/video.news.com.au/Sport/AFL/News/
It’s a tough life on the Gold Coast.
ROUND two of the AFL season continues on Sunday with some mouth-watering clashes.
Geelong is looking to win two from two to start 2017 when it takes on North Melbourne, who lost its opening round game to West Coast. Top eight hopefuls Carlton and Melbourne duel it out and Port Adelaide has the chance to back up its first start win over 2016 grand finalists Sydney when it hosts Fremantle in the South Australian capital.
11.20am
Gold Coast has a ‘bad stench’
The Suns will be hoping the only way is up.Source:Getty Images
We’re only two rounds in but is it already time for the Gold Coast Suns to hit the panic button?
A first up defeat to the Brisbane Lions, who finished second last in 2016, has been followed by a humiliating 160-58 loss to the GWS Giants on Saturday.
There was no greater illustration of the gulf between the AFL’s two newest clubs than the four quarters played out at Spotless Stadium. The Giants — who have grown from boys into men since coming into the competition in 2012 — played in last year’s preliminary final but the Suns have continued to languish around the lower rungs of the ladder.
Based on what we’ve seen in 2017, it doesn’t look __like the Suns’ fortunes are about to change any time soon. Sports broadcaster Gerard Whateley said the Queensland side’s performance was an “embarrassment”.
“To roll out in round two and get beaten by a fellow expansion team by 102 points is nothing short of an embarrassment,” Whateley said on ABC program Offsiders.
“On the evidence that we’ve seen so far, losing to Brisbane first up and getting ambushed and not being prepared for what was coming then getting decimated yesterday ... not a lot of it (problems at the club) has been solved.”
The Suns have failed to make the finals in any of their six seasons. Journalist and broadcaster Kelli Underwood said Saturday’s performance is another black mark against a club that has struggled for too long.
“I watched the first two minutes of that game and thought straight away this has got triple figures written all over it and there’s been a bad stench emanating from the Gold Coast for several years now,” Underwood said.
“(Coach) Rodney Eade is in the last year of his three-year deal, he has 10 wins from 46 games. He turns 59 on Tuesday, it’s not going to be a happy birthday at all.”
She says the fact young stars __like Jaeger O’Meara (Hawthorn) and Dion Prestia (Richmond) left the club in the off-season pointed to problems on the Gold Coast.
“You just have to look at the exodus over summer,” Underwood said. “O’Meara, Prestia, even Gary Ablett put his hand up and asked if he could leave, you don’t need to be in the inner sanctum to know that’s a club that’s got a lot of issues.”
Former AFL player Brendan Fevola said the shocking performance may cost Eade his job.
Gold Coast are horrific Rocket might not have a job come Monday morning #sobad #gotworse #suns
— Brendan Fevola (@BrendanFevola25) April 1, 2017
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11am
Cameron getting his groove back
Jeremy Cameron is moving in the right direction.Source:Getty Images
GWS Giants spearhead Jeremy Cameron’s scintillating start to the AFL season, work rate and bid to become a more complete player have earned praise from his coach and namesake.
Cameron added six goals in the club’s 102-point drubbing of Gold Coast on his 24th birthday on Saturday, to the four he booted in his side’s opening round loss to the Crows.
Giants’ coach Leon Cameron said his key forward had also performed well in pre-season and intra-club hit-outs in the two weeks leading into the first round. He has topped the Giants’ goalkicking list in each of their first five seasons, passing 50 in three of those campaigns.
“It’s not about hitting the scoreboard, it’s about his work rate and his work rate has been first class which is pleasing,” Leon Cameron said. “He worked like a centre half forward should work (against Gold Coast) and that's up the ground and back as well, so every game he plays he reads the play better, he understands moments a little bit better.”
Jeremy Cameron earned All-Australian honours in just his second season, but there’s been a perception among some pundits he hasn’t kicked on from there as much as expected.
“Somewhere along the line you’re going to come back to the pack and people are going to start working you out and the next few years Jeremy still finds a way to hit the scoreboard,” Leon Cameron said.
“But he’s working through other areas of his game that he wants to be better at when he’s not hitting the scoreboard and that's the pleasing part for me.
“Over the month of footy that he’s played regardless of whether it’s been AFL competition or practice matches, he’s working at areas that he wants to work on constantly to become a more complete player.”
The coach also lauded the efforts of his All-Australian half forward Toby Greene, who on Saturday became the first player drafted by GWS to play 100 games for the club.
Greene started his AFL life as a high possession-getting midfielder, but has successfully reinvented himself as a goalkicking small forward, who still gets plenty of ball.
“He epitomises what we want to stand for as a footy club, and that is you want to be able to compete,” Leon Cameron said.
He expected key forward Jon Patton to be fit for next Saturday’s game against North Melbourne in Hobart, after he was a late withdrawal from the Suns match with a hip issue.
— AAP
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- Gold Coast has a ‘bad stench’
- Jeremy Cameron shines
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