A quick message for Suns fans before we get underway.
Unlike most outlets, I am more than happy to give your club as much attention as the big boys… but I need your support to continue doing so. These types of columns take a mammoth effort, and every share, like and membership compels me to continue doing them. The Suns columns… the supporters just don’t get on board. I need your help.
If you are one, and are onboard, thank you. If you could share within your networks to help us build our Suns community, I would greatly appreciate it.
Thanks – HB
On with the show.
Well, I guess there is no dancing around the issue in this season preview, is there? Enough is enough for the Gold Coast Suns – the time to make the finals is now, and no excuses should be tolerated.
In a part of the country that has a burgeoning junior competition, and remains a huge potential market, the time is perfect for the Suns to make their mark on the competition and fulfil the destiny the Dark Lord, Andrew Demetriou, outlined for them, when he was CEO of the league.
For once, the Suns seem stable. They have a premiership coach at the helm, and I have to admit, I always give a coach 12 months to truly install his style and his standards on a group. By the time season two rolls around, the coach should have everything he wants in place. He is ready for them to deliver.
But are the players ready?
They possess veteran leadership, a mid-age group (23 to 27-year-olds) that are as good as any in the league, and continue to receive brilliant prospects on an annual basis from their Academy. For all the criticism the Suns have received, and for all the talk about them not living up their potential, they have compiled a list that would be the envy of most other teams, and it now has people whining about the benefits they’re receiving via that Academy.
Forget the fact they get bugger all in the way of Father/Son picks, right? Yeah… don’t mention that – just bitch and whine about the other avenue they have available to them.
All that is missing now is the results.
How important is it that the Suns make finals in 2025?
Well, consider this. The Gold Coast supporters have been waiting for them to make good for years. Realistically, the talk of the Suns being finals-worthy has been going on for three or four years, now. However, the team have stumbled at every hurdle. When you are one of those supporters, and you have your hopes dashed so consistently, and in a manner that leaves you so disheartened, you’re probably a little more reluctant to sign up for more.
Like a dog that has been kicked, you don’t come running when the owner of the offending boot calls you. You’re cautious. You’re a little afraid. You’ve been hurt, and you don’t want more of the same.
The Suns supporters cannot be kicked too often. They have been patient. They have endured the hard times every bit as much as anyone involved directly with the club. Any more pain and eventually, they stop coming when the club calls them.
Everything is in place. The list IS finals-worthy. The coach knows what it takes to get a team to the top. And the hits keep coming from the draft.
Maybe risk one more kick. The rewards could be amazing.
It’s that time of year, already.
The break after Christmas and New Year is over. The holidays are finished for AFL players, and the hard stuff starts now. Yes, the teams had been training for well over a month prior to Christmas, but as we head into 2025, the stakes are raised, and the intensity increases.
This is where premierships are won and lost. This is where improvements are made and lists come together. This is where the kids show if they’re serious or not. New faces, new colours, old heads with renewed passion… so much feeds into the making of a contender. And as the days tick down toward the intra-club clashes, practice games, and eventually the real stuff, questions are raised about each team and how they’re going to perform in this new season.
And that’s where HB and The Mongrel come in.
We don’t do things by halves here, at The Mongrel Punt. When we do a season preview, we go all out to make sure it is the best, most comprehensive coverage you’ll receive. We pride ourselves on it. If you are going to read one season preview for your team, or any team, this series will provide it.
The way it works is as follows.
Each club has a minimum of 15 questions asked about the upcoming season, their coaches, their players, and their expectations. The answers are not glossed over. We dive deep on each and every one of them – some singular answers would normally be long enough for an entire column. The first five questions/answers are free for you to consume. The next 10-14 for each club are for our members, including a special appearance from Mrs Mongrel to throw her two cents in the mix.
Isn’t it a bit early for a season preview? Well, I suppose, but do you know how long it takes to write seven-to-nine thousand words? That’s 18 x 8,000… gets out the calculator… that’s 144,000 words. The average novel is about 85,000 words, so buckle the hell up with these previews; we’re going deeper than ever.
Also, if there are any issues that arise after the publication of the preview for any team, they will be covered in standalone articles to act as additions to this preview.
You will not read a deeper season preview than this – I guarantee it. This is where we start the run to the new season, and believe me – nobody does it better than The Mongrel.
And now we come to the 2025 Gold Coast Suns.
Enjoy.
1 – HOW DOES THE PRE-SEASON INJURY TO DANIEL RIOLI IMPACT HIS FIRST GOLD COAST SEASON?
Well, on a personal note, it sets him back a little, but it’s not like he was brought in to underpin this outfit – the Suns have a bit of a gun back six, boasting the reigning Mongrel Punt Defensive Player of the Year (cheap plug), Sam Collins, and high quality interceptors, like Wil Powell, Charlie Ballard, and Mac Andrew, when he is not required to snag game-winning goals.
The Suns have also picked up John Noble from the Pies, whose acquisition probably flew under the radar, given Rioli joining the club.
So, from a team perspective, the Suns wouldn’t be too worried, even if Rioli is a little slower off the mark in 2025 than they’d prefer.
The good news is that, once he does hit peak fitness, the Suns are able to enjoy the luxury of one of the more damaging half-back runners in the game. Rioli averaged 2.43 inside fifties per game in 2024, as part of a Richmond team that… well, they flat-out sucked, if we’re being honest. Still, Rioli’s run and carry, combined with his ability to hit the scoreboard and set up teammates, were a bright spot for Richmond, with the new Sun picking up the Jack Dyer Medal in his final season at the club.
Whilst I am sure that both Rioli and the club would have loved to have him experience an injury-free run at his first year in Gold Coast colours, there should definitely not be any panic, whatsoever, about his fitness. Nor should there be any concern as to how long he takes to genuinely find his place in the team. He will be a player that improves as the eason progresses.
He has only been running since the players returned from their Christmas/New Year break, so there is a mountain of work to do, and if the Suns are wise, they will not be rushing him to get back and be the player he was at Richmond immediately. They have the bases covered, and they have time on their side.
Rioli should be allowed to work his way into full fitness in his own time. Gold Coast have done an impressive job of building a list that has stars, as well as great depth (see section further down). If Rioli takes a month extra to achieve full fitness, then so be it.
2 – AFTER A PRETTY… HUMBLING FIRST YEAR, WHAT CAN WE EXPECT FROM JED WALTER IN YEAR TWO?
Our resident Suns writer (and Suns defender), Brett Hodgson, was a little deluded last year. You see, he had this belief that Jed Walter would take over a game at some point in his first season.
Brett… mate… that just doesn’t happen. No forward has done that since… maybe Tom Hawkins? Possibly Jeremy Cameron? It’s just a huge ask for a kid to come into the AFL, play key position, and have a big say in how the game is played. They take time.
Maybe it was just hope on Hodgey’s part, but there is still plenty to get excited about with their young forward.
Walter is a mammoth kid. He looks like he was born in a gym, and once his ability catches up with his physical prowess, he is going to be a handful, but to think he was going to have a major impact in year one was wishful thinking. And I reckon Hodgy knows it, too.
But what does another pre-season in the weights room and on the track do for Walter? How much can he improve in year two, and how can he provide something the Suns need?
Okay, so three questions stemming from the first one – let’s jump in.
Firstly, the Suns are still in need of a solid second option up forward. Jack Lukosius is now out of the picture, which muddies the waters a little more if you thought he was the answer (he wasn’t – he is a nowhere man in terms of the AFL… a player who can do a bit of everything but doesn’t truly fit at one position). Mac Andrew is a very, very promising young player, and was rewarded with a huge contract extension on the basis of that potential. If he plays up forward, he could very well fill the role and make the Suns more dangerous, and then there’s Walter.
I am not here to blow smoke up your arse – I can’t see him being a huge impact player in 2025. In 2026… yeah, I can definitely see him staking a claim as one of the emerging stars of the game, but what I think Walter can provide this season is something similar to what Jacob van Rooyen gave the Demons in 2023, or Aaron Cadman started to give the Giants in 2024.
JvR wasn’t rushed into the Melbourne team. He was actually sent back to the VFL in 2022 to refine his craft, and he stayed there the entire year – it worked well for the Dees, as van Rooyen emerged with a full season of footy against mature bodies as a better-rounded forward, able to hold his own. Part of me would have liked to see Walter treated similarly in 2024, to take the weight of expectation off his shoulders. Still, he played 14 games and took more than four marks just once. The Suns probably jumped the gun a little with his continued inclusion, but that doesn’t mean he won’t be ready to contribute this season.
If we were to ask for the same progression that Aaron Cadman at GWS made in 2024, would that be fair?
Possibly.
Cadman is a little more wiry and mobile, whilst I see Walter as more of a pack-crasher. Still, Cadman made the leap from six goals in 12 games in 2023, to 30 goals in 23 games last season. As the number three forward, Walter averaging 1.3 goals per game would be a spectacular result.
A three-tall forward line consisting of Ben King, Jed Walter, and Mac Andrew, would be a nightmare matchup for opposition coaches, but so much will depend on how much attention the main man, Ben King, is able to command, and how he is able to handle it. Let’s look at that a little below.
3 – IS IT TIME BEN KING WINS A COLEMAN?
Possibly, but I will tell you what it definitely is time for him to do – grab a game by the scruff of the neck and shake the damn life out of it. We haven’t seen anywhere near enough of that.
As a matter of fact, I can not remember seeing that at all, from him.
King, and his brother for that matter, play a passive brand of footy for key forwards. They have such incredible physical gifts, but lack that element of mongrel that tells opposition defenders not to drop into the hole in front of them, or they’ll get a knee in the back of the head for their troubles. In a lot of ways, the King Brothers give the opposition a free pass to clog up their leading lane. They are too easily pushed off their line, and don’t assert their dominance in marking contests unless they get an unimpeded run at the footy.
It has to change.
Ben King has to start punishing teams, and his direct opponent. He is no longer a kid – time to play like a man.
Ben kicked 55 goals in 2024 – a career-high, and good enough to see him finish fourth in the Coleman, but the others at the top of the tree all had big days out.
Jesse Hogan snagged five or more goals on five occasions.
Jeremy Cameron did it three times, including a nine-goal bag against the Eagles late in the season.
These blokes have a killer instinct that I have not really seen from King. He seems more content to get his three goals and spend the rest of the game acting as though his job is done.
King kicked five in the Round Zero clash, and never got to that level again in 2024. He peppered the goals with bags of three and four, but it seemed as though he was content playing a complementary role, as opposed to being the big dog.
But he should be the big dog. He should be building on those three-goal games, and putting teams to the sword.
Ben King has all the tools to be a Coleman Medallist, but he is lacking one thing – mongrel. As a key forward, I want to see him take complete control of a contest and kick seven or eight. I want to see him refuse to be bodied out of the contest (it happens far too easily), start taking contested grabs, and letting his direct matchup know all about it.
That’s how a player goes from being a good forward to a Coleman Medallist. The thing is, some who have won a Coleman have done it without the gifts King has, and that must pain Suns supporters to see him just doing enough, when he is absolutely capable of so much more.
So, after all that rambling, is it time he wins a Coleman?
You’re damn tooting it is time. But settling for a few snags when a veritable feast is on offer won’t get it done.
4 – IS THIS DAVID SWALLOW’S LAST CHANCE TO PREVENT AN UNFLATTERING RECORD?
For years, the great St Kilda champion, Trevor Barker, held an ignominious record. He had the most games to his name without ever playing a final.
For 230 games, Barks toiled away at the Saints, taking hangers and banging… errr… goals, before hanging up the boots without ever having troubled September footy. May he rest in peace.
However, in 2024, Barker was relegated to second place by the former Gold Coast captain, David Swallow. At 240 games without a final, Swallow is now the player that holds the record no one wants, and it is up to this team to erase it.
Hell, it has to be in 2025 – Swallow has been held together with crete paper and clag for long periods of his career, but whilst others have sought the limelight and big crowds elsewhere, Swallow has remained loyal to the team that took him first overall back in the 2010 AFL Draft.
I am certain you’d never hear this from Swallow, himself, but someone has to say it. Gold Coast, you owe this bloke! He didn’t turn tail and run when he had the chance, like so many others opted to do. He stuck it out with a team that, frankly, were very poor for a long time. When others lost faith, he retained his and demonstrated his loyalty. And now, as he nears the end of his career, he deserves a hell of a lot better than the hand he’s been dealt.
I wonder whether Dimma stands in front of the group at the start of this season and speaks about sacrifice? I wonder if he looks these players in the eye and talks about team over personal glory? And I wonder if he does do these things, whether he will make every single player on the list commit to doing this for their games record holder, and the most loyal player the club has had.
He has been there from the start, and now at the end, he has earned a taste of success.
Do it for him, damn it! Get the monkey off the club’s back, and give Swallow the taste of success he thoroughly deserves.
5 – WHAT DID THE SUNS LOSE WITH JACK LUKOSIUS DEPARTING?
This may come across as pandering to the Suns’ fan base, but to hell with it. Gotta tell it like it is.
They’re not losing that much. I genuinely believe that everything Lukosius brought to the table at Gold Coast, was countered by something he didn’t, and can be easily covered by the existing players on the list.
He was highly skilled and had a beautiful kick on him – still does. However, he seemed to be the type of player that would hit some lovely long kicks, and then, when a 30-metre pass was required without too much pressure on him, he’d fluff his lines, miss his target, and open up an avenue for a counter-attack.
Up forward, he was capable of snagging goals, but had games where he just couldn’t get near it. This was compounded by his ‘laconic’ style, which, at times, made it appear as though he wasn’t even really trying. I’m sure he was, but it was that leisurely look that gave the impression his mind was not completely on the job at hand.
There are some players in the league I term “Nowhere Men”. They can play anywhere, and for periods, actually look like they are one of the best in that role. Lukosius is one of the first that springs to mind when I use the term. You think about where he was deployed during his time at the Suns, and where he found the most success.
Half back?
Yeah, but the Suns are stacked in that position.
Wing?
Yeah, he was tried there, as well. Handy, but offered nothing anyone else couldn’t.
Up forward?
Five goals one week, three over the next three weeks. That’s what he gave you – he was like the tease at high school. Look at what you might get… but here’s what you will actually get – nothing!
Lukosius reminds me a little of Jack Watts with a little more skill. If you redrafted 2018, I reckon only Chayce Jones (Pick Nine) and Tarryn Thomas (Pick Eight) would be picked after him from those selected in the top ten, which is probably more reflective of where he’s at, and how his value has fallen.
Jack of all trades. Master of none.
The Suns didn’t lose too much, at all.
Have fun in Adelaide.
The next 14 questions are for our members. Option to join below.
This is just under a third of our preview. The rest is available exclusively to our members. People, we give value. No same old gabage you’re going to hear from ten others, taking turns in mimicking each other. No played out opinions. Thoughtful and comprehensive – that’s what we aspire to provide in these previews, and your support makes them bigger and better every year. Jump on board.
