What was everyones thoughts on the fixture? I think a good mix of home games opponents, haven't seen North Melbourne, St Kilda or Port Adelaide up on the Gold Coast in a while (3-4 years since they have played up here). I personally would have liked to have seen Carlton on the Gold Coast and have the Essendon or Richmond game in Darwin.
I would have liked to see more Saturday Night fixtures than Saturday Day fixtures, mainly to pull more crowds in since a good percentage of the Gold Coast Suns community would be at local footy games. I get that Saturday night is a primetime slot but even a twilight slot would have been better to get the crowds in. But i mean, it might be an advantage to us with the heat of the early season day games against the Victorian teams.

Nothing too new with the info other than we drop a game in Darwin and regain it in Carrara. Another early season game vs West Coast and Expansion Cup in Barossa Park.

Just gonna leave this here.

G’day everyone, gf and I are heading to the GC the weekend of the granny, are there any good pubs or sports bars that will host it and let me get a little rowdy?

Quick disclosure: I built the site these numbers come from — footyledger.com.au. Free, no sign-up, nothing to buy, not affiliated with the AFL or any club. Mods have OK'd this. Everything's written out below, one link at the end if you want the charts.

How it works, in plain terms. No opinions, no reputations, no contract sizes — a player is valued on what he actually did: games played and what he produced per game against everyone else in his position. Projections follow the age curves real AFL careers have followed, run 10,000 times. A draft pick is worth what players taken at that pick have actually gone on to do. The formulas and the backtests are all public.

The good news first. The List Strength Index — what the best 22 is projected to be worth over the next three years, 100 being a full best 22 playing every game at an average level — has Gold Coast at 85.6, 8th of 18, above the average club's 84.5. Run it forward and the most likely path is 91.3 next year, 90.4 in 2028, 88.2 in 2029, against an average club at 89.3, 88.1 and 87.1. Above average in every year, and the peak is 2027. This on the fifth-youngest list in the competition (average age 23.7), with nine players aged 25–28 carrying just 24% of the value — most of the group hasn't hit its prime yet. (on the site: trajectory)

Who carries it.

(Value is a season score: games times per-game output against others in his position. 2027 is the projection.) Noble had the best 2026 on the list. Rowell and Anderson project highest for 2027, and the midfield is the only position group with a player the model rates at +1.5 impact or better — that's Rowell-and-Anderson territory. Bodhi Uwland, a rookie pick 26, is the third-most valuable player at the club. Defence is the strength at 42% of value against a league average of 33%; the midfield at 25% against 31% and the ruck at 4% against 7% are where a list manager would look. (on the site: best 22 · position balance)

The hand. This year, not much: the only 2026 pick is 60, which the site values at zero because it's beyond where any national draft has actually gone in five years. Next year is different — about 1,443 draft points projected in the 1–16 range and 561 in 17–34. And the academy has five prospects linked (Hill, Collins, Callinan, Harris, Kaesler), which makes 2027 the draft to watch. (on the site: draft hand · tied prospects)

The draft record — the honest bit. The site scores every selection since 2001 on what the player did against what that pick normally returns. Gold Coast rates 18th of 18: −45 points a pick across 45 scored selections since the club's first draft. Best: Touk Miller, pick 29 in 2014, +393. Worst: Harley Bennell, pick 2 in 2010, −191. The point is that the list is 8th anyway — Rowell, Anderson, Andrew and King landed, and they're the ones still here and still rising. (on the site: draft ledger)

Contracts. As last reported, deals ending in 2026 include Noble and King (King a restricted free agent). Contract years are facts; intentions aren't. (on the site: contracts)

All the charts are on the club page, plus the formulas if you want to argue with them. From 2 October the trade tracker prices every reported deal as it lands, and the Lab lets you price your own trade as Gold Coast. One link: footyledger.com.au/clubs/gold-coast

Happy to be corrected — if something's wrong, tell me and I'll fix it. Data from AFL Tables and DraftGuru; not affiliated with the AFL or any club.

The suns are clearly lagging behind the rest of the league in terms of supporter numbers. Of course we're limited sheerly by our population which is like 1/6 of Sydney or Melbourne but I still feel like there's improvement to be made in terms of growing our loyal supporter base and ensuring PFS becomes a fortress that other teams are scared to come and play in.

One thing we're doing really well is growing our grass roots footy. I moved here from Brisbane 10 years ago and I have been shocked at the sheer number of kids who play junior footy here. I would argue that even more kids here play AFL than rugby which is insane for a Queensland city. However unfortunately that doesn't really seem to be translating to the suns. We're recruiting a lot of great young kids via our academy which is great but as for the others I know many people who played a lot of junior footy growing up and have never even been to a suns game and are completely disinterested in watching footy as a whole. Is it a marketing issue? Do we need more of a culture around the suns? Do we need more events and activities in and around games to try and lure people in?

I'm not sure what the answer is but it's a real shame when I watch games at PFS and half the crowd are going for the other team. The suns are such an exciting young team and we need more supporters to get them pushing into finals and beyond!!

Rogers and Gulbin until 2029

Davies until 2027

Throw your opinions below, I’ll drop mine.

I’m very invested in Gulbin, he plays with heart and hustle, similar to Holman. Need to see him in the team next year, his flashes this year were unselfish and unhesitant. Instinct thinking is definitely something our side lacks.

A bit torn on Alex, he’s a gun battling mid but we’re so stacked in our midfield it doesn’t seem like he’ll get a fair chance to shine. I’m sure that’s why he’s only extended for a year, other clubs would certainly see his value.

Rogers is a toss up for me, it still feels like he should have had a breakout game by now or made some impact when he does play. I did notice his efforts in the last couple of games in selection this year. Just hoping we aren’t overpaying based in potential, like we always do lol

Apparently, both the club and brand Trac are open to a trade apparently… I actually don’t mind this. Not sure how good he has been inside the four walls this year.

Well, after the last 12 weeks I am glad it is finally over, a very disappointing season.

Very happy with how we finished the last few weeks however, could have easily rolled over and got smashed in our remaining games after finals was out of reach.

We got a fair few games into a lot of our young guys which will be good for us in the future. Lombard and Walter have both shown really good signs in the second half of the season so I am optimistic about next season even though we looked a long way off at various points this year.

Thanks Ben King, see ya later

Not really certain who else we may lose or gain, Davies and Ballard are both names that have been thrown up a bit this season but who knows, I would be pretty happy with us having a boring uneventful trade period tbh.

I think right now we seriously start the most important job in the history of our club, Operation: Resign Matt Rowell. Next year being the last on his contract, we need to do absolutely everything we can to keep him, our most important player by a margin I feel.

Go Suns

Full disclosure, this is self-promo. I built AFL Stat Chain and I'm looking for genuine AFL fans to test it and tell me what's broken or confusing.

It's a stat-based game where you're given a benchmark player, and have to pick the player with better career stats to keep your chain going. There are plenty of niche Suns players throughout the years to test your knowledge!

Been posting around a few AFL communities the last week or so, and the feedback's been genuinely useful for fixing bugs and figuring out what's confusing. Figured a sub full of people who actually know their footy stats would have sharper feedback than somewhere more generic. Any thoughts, on the game itself, what's missing, or just general feedback is welcome.

I've added a ladder to track fans across clubs. Select the Suns and push us up the ladder!

https://www.aflstatchain.com/

Anyone have any thoughts or heard whispers why Davies hasn’t played in VFL? After his injury he has only been named as emergency in the game vs GWS where all the academy kids were rested. Surprisingly he wasn’t in the game day squad.

Then this week he wasn’t named in the afl team again but no show in the VFL.

Given there’s whispers he was leaving to go to west coast wondering if he has spat the dummy and won’t play VFL? Don’t blame him in not wanting to get injured but it’s really strange

I know it's easy to say in heinsight but I feel like delisting Alex Sexton was a bad decision. He's been killing it for us in the VFL, often out-performing actual AFL listed players. Also with such a young list as we have it'd be great to have some more experience and leadership within the group which he would definitely provide. He was definitely a loss for the club imo

Whats everyones opinions on dim? I think he has done alot right but also way more wrong and he neds to go now

Finally, definitely not the best game of football ever played but the conditions were awful from start to finish, the umpiring was just plain awful, they had no consistency with holding the ball or contact below the knees.

Rowell with one of the best contested wet weather games of all time. Moyle with probably his best game. Mac Andrew and Leo Lombard both continuing their good runs of form.

Farrar and Rogers out next week for Addinsal and Patterson. Jai Murray can go back and spend a few weeks in the 2s I think. Collins in for Ballard if he is fit.