A tale of two halves, as is becoming the trend for the Suns under Stuart Dew. Gold Coast began like a house on fire, mainly thanks to the red-hot form of number one draft pick Matt Rowell.
The Suns were very competitive all year but the condensed fixture took its toll on the young club and they ran out of steam towards the season's culmination. They developed their young players well and saw genuine improvement, it was a definite step forward.
Ins: Rory Atkins (Adelaide), Oleg Markov (Richmond), Elijah Hollands (Draft), Alex Davies (Draft), Joel Jeffery (Draft), Jacob Townsend (Pre-season draft), Aiden Fyfe (Pre-season draft).
Outs: Pearce Hanley (Retired), Anthony Miles (Delisted), George Horlin-Smith (Delisted), Corey Ellis (Delisted), Josh Schoenfeld (Delisted), Mitch Riordan (Delisted), Sam Fletcher (Delisted), Jesse Joyce (Delisted), Jacob Dawson (Delisted), Jacob Heron (Delisted), Peter Wright (Essendon).
Grade: C
The Suns did very well to clear out some of the dead wood sitting around and have committed to the youth.
They drafted well and will get immediate rewards from their pre-draft selections. Rory Atkins and Jacob Townsend look like very good mature-age recruits. This is a pass mark for the Suns, they did what they had too.
The second-half of the season is the time to judge the Suns, they have made a habit of running out of steam late in seasons and their young legs need to be able to adjust to the strains of a long campaign.
They don't need to win a heap of games but they need to be competitive for longer in games towards the business end of the season, especially if they are going to eventually make the jump to finals soon.
B: Jarrod Harbrow, Sam Collins, Jack Bowes
HB: Charlie Ballard, Jack Lukosius, Oleg Markov
C: Brandon Ellis, Touk Miller, Lachie Weller
HF: Hugh Greenwood, Ben King, Ben Ainsworth
F: Izak Rankine, Sam Day, Alex Sexton
FOLL: Jarrod Witts, David Swallow, Matt Rowell
I/C: Noah Anderson, Rory Atkins, Connor Budarick, Wil Powell
The Suns' best 22 isn't too dissimilar to last year and that's the way it needs to be. Gone are the days of large turnover and adding players to the list for the sake of being competitive. Every player now is there for a purpose, the Suns need to get games into these kids and allow this group to build continuity and cohesion.
Rory Atkins slots in and adds some valuable experience with Brandon Ellis on the wings, while the rest of their midfield group remains quite young.
The Suns strength is their youth. They are very promising and building a good culture that can see this group stick together and bring some success to Surfer's Paradise. They have good young players across every line and those players are yet to hit their prime.
Their weakness is their youth, yes that's right. The talent is there but the experience both mentally and physically just isn't there yet, they will eventually get enough pre-season in to these kids to stop the physical mismatches and the fade outs, but for now it is still a concern.
14th
The Suns can't and won't be measured on wins and losses, they are simply about moving this list's development forward and building more and more synergy within their side.
They will improve but any sudden rise up the ladder is unrealistic at this point, this is year two of the build for Stuart Dew's men and they deserve the chance to be judged on development, not wins and losses.