AFL great Malcolm Blight lets rip amid Gold Coast Suns debacle
The former Suns board member has made some eye-catching comparisons as the club appears destined to miss the finals again.
The Gold Coast Suns have been roundly criticised throughout the AFL world after the sacking of head coach Stuart Dew, but former club board member and league great Malcolm Blight has taken on the unenviable task of defending the club. The Suns are yet to play a single finals match since joining the AFL in 2011, however Blight says it's an unfair criticism given the long-term premiership droughts of a number of rival clubs.
After reports emerged the prior week that Dew's days at the Suns were numbered, the club vehemently backed in the coach - only to sack him a week later. The move prompted widespread criticism, as the club now gears up to pursue former Richmond Tigers coach Damien Hardwick.
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The overall lack of success of the Suns has drawn comparisons to fellow expansion side GWS Giants, who have made the finals five times and played a losing grand final in 2019. However that comparison was rejected by Blight, who claimed the Giants had been given substantially more resources, both in terms of club facilities as well as draft access.
The Suns have copped criticism after a number of players they have drafted have either requested trades or moved on in free agency to great success elsewhere. Richmond forward Tom Lynch headlines a list of such players, which also includes the likes of Steven May, Dion Prestia and Josh Caddy.
Blight pointed out the fact that Fremantle is yet to win a premiership after joining the AFL in 1994, also naming the likes of St Kilda, who haven't won since their lone triumph in 1966. He also pointed to the recently broken premiership droughts of Melbourne and the Western Bulldogs as evidence of the sheer difficulty of the task.
“This is how tough it is. Everyone out there saying the Gold Coast Suns are no good and they’re rubbish and shouldn’t be in the competition - that’s crap,” Blight said.
“So when people talk about them being a cost - Port Adelaide was a cost 10 years ago, Collingwood were a cost 30 years ago, everyone is going to take their turn. They’ve been in the competition 12 years.
"The great Geelong didn’t win until last year for 11 years. Melbourne, 57 years it took to win another one. Richmond, 37 years.
"West Coast Eagles even took 24 years to win their next one. Western Bulldogs, 62 years.
“Fremantle haven’t won one yet, 28 years. Sydney, 72 years they took to win another flag. Collingwood, the great Collingwood, the most talked about club in the world, 32 years they took to win a flag from 1958 to 1990.
"And St Kilda, dare I say it, are now running at 57 years. So 12 years is not a long time in this game.”
Blight rejects comparison between Suns and Giants
However the glaring difference between all of those examples is that, for the most part, all of those clubs can point to deep finals runs that showed a far greater level of competitiveness than the Suns have shown thus far. The Suns' best season came when Dew lead the team to a 10-10 record in 2022 - still short of a top eight finish.
Blight argued the Giants had been offered substantially more resources than the Suns. He said he 'wished people would understand' that the quality of their home base in their early years had proven to be a significant issue in the long run.
“They (the Giants) got a decent area. The Gold Coast Suns got ATCO huts with the best player in the competition (Gary Ablett Jnr),” Blight added.
"“They also got an extra year in the draft. I wish people would understand this. They also got $2 million more.
“I’m really dirty, absolutely dirty, when people say ‘Let’s compare GWS and Gold Coast Suns’. They should not be compared. GWS got much more. (The Suns) were training in toilets, they were training in rubbish.”
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