The Gold Coast Suns aren’t young cannon fodder for the competition’s strongest teams any more. They have won five games this season including three at their home ground. Many of their much vaunted youngsters have taken big strides and captain Gary Ablett Junior continues to go from strength to strength.
In summary? Saturday’s match should be a beauty.
Match Details
Gold Coast v Collingwood
Round 17
Saturday 20 July 2013
Metricon Stadium (nee Carrara Stadium)
Start time
Local: 4.40pm
EST: 4.40pm
Head-to-Head
Collingwood: 2
Gold Coast: 0
Drawn: 0
Past Two
Round 10 2012
Collingwood 23.11 (149)
Gold Coast 7.10 (52)
Goals – Collingwood: Cloke 3, Elliott 3, Sinclair 3, D.Thomas 3, Didak 2, Fasolo 2, Goldsack, Pendlebury, Wellingham, Williams, Wood, Beams, Buckley
Gold Coast: Brown 3, Lynch, Russell, Hall, Shaw
Disposals – Collingwood: D.Thomas 32, Beams 32, Didak 29, Wellingham 27, Buckley 25
Gold Coast: Ablett 53, Bennell 28, Iles 24, McKenzie 21, Stanley 20
Brownlow: 3. G.Ablett (GC), 2. D.Thomas (Coll), 1. D.Beams (Coll)
At the MCG
Round 18 2011
Collingwood 19.15 (129)
Gold Coast 11.9 (75)
Goals – Collingwood: Keeffe 3, Ball 2, Johnson 2, Cloke 2, Pendlebury 2, Krakouer 2, Sidebottom 2, Blair, Buckley, Swan, Goldsack
Gold Coast: Bennell 2, McKenzie 2, Iles, Krakouer, Lynch, Harbrow, Rischitelli, Stanley, Weller
Disposals – Collingwood: Pendlebury 34, Johnson 33, Davis 32, Swan 31, Ball 27
Gold Coast: Ablett 36, Stanley 23, Brown 23, Swallow 22, Iles 21
Brownlow: 3. S.Pendlebury (Coll), 2. L.Ball (Coll), 1. B.Johnson (Coll)
At Metricon Stadium
Stats and figures
- The retiring Ben Johnson played only one game against Gold Coast but he made it count. It was back in July 2011, only a week after he had returned from a long layoff with a hamstring injury. After gathering 23 possessions against the Blues, Johnson unleashed against the Suns, gathering 33 possessions and kicking two goals from three scoring shots. He also took the ball inside 50 on an equal career-high 10 occasions and laid four tackles – all this despite playing only 73 per cent of the match.
- Every Gold Coast match sees opposition supporters keep one eye trained on the genius in No.9 – Gary Ablett. He has been a thorn in Collingwood’s side for several years now, and not only in his time as a Sun. He averages 44.5 possessions while playing for the Coast against the Magpies and won a career-high 53 touches in last year’s encounter. Despite Ablett’s dominance, which saw him receive three Brownlow votes, Collingwood still romped to a 97-point. Many Collingwood supporters will still remember the lone hand Ablett played for Geelong when his side was thrashed by the Pies in the 2010 Preliminary Final. Ablett collected 40 possessions in a 41-point loss. The match was his final outing in the blue and white hoops. Three years earlier, it was Ablett who sunk Collingwood’s hopes of a surprise Grand Final appearance with a crucial late goal in the 2007 Preliminary Final.
- They may have been in the competition for only two years but Gold Coast has already made use of its share of ex-Collingwood people. Josh Fraser (2000-2010), Danny Stanley (2006-2009) and Sam Iles (2006-2008) all sought greener pastures at Metricon Stadium after several years in Black and White. Current Suns coach Guy McKenna was an assistant to Mick Malthouse from 2004-2007 and Collingwood stalwart Shane O’Bree was one of McKenna’s assistants in the new club’s first two years. A little-known fact is that Gold Coast star Harley Bennell’s older brother Johnny spent a year on Collingwood’s rookie list in 2009.
- History will be on Collingwood’s side as it runs out onto Metricon Stadium on Saturday evening. It is one of five clubs that hold a 100 per cent winning record at the venue. The Magpies have won all six encounters at the ground (five against the Brisbane Bears and one against the Suns). The club’s first match at the venue was back in 1987 (then known as Carrara) when it beat the Bears by 23 points. The legendary Peter Daicos holds the record for the most amount of goals kicked at the ground, having bagged an incredible 13 against the hapless Bears in round 20, 1991.
- It’s a tick over 12 months since Collingwood last met Gold Coast but the complexion of its side has changed dramatically. When the Magpies run out against the Suns on Saturday, Alex Fasolo, Harry O’Brien, Dale Thomas, Cameron Wood, Sharrod Wellingham, Tom Young, Simon Buckley, Chris Dawes and Kirk Ugle will all be missing for one reason or another. Alan Didak and Marty Clarke are others who didn’t play last week who were members of the team that won by 97-points in round 10 last year.
Record breakers?
The Magpie Army comes from far and wide to support its beloved team and it’s little wonder that it helped set the record for the highest attendance for a VFL/AFL game at Metricon Stadium in round 18, 2011, when 23,302 saw the Pies get home by 54-points. The venue has a capacity of 25,000. Could the Army break the record on Saturday evening?
Injury List
Collingwood
Alan Didak (calf) – test
Quinten Lynch (back) – test
Jack Frost (knee) – 1-2 weeks
Darren Jolly (knee) – 3-4 weeks
Alex Fasolo (foot) – indefinite
Dale Thomas (ankle) – indefinite
Clinton Young (hamstring) – indefinite
Michael Hartley (shoulder) – season
Alan Toovey (knee) – season
Gold Coast
Charlie Dixon (ankle) – test
Daniel Gorringe (shoulder) – test
Henry Schade (ankle) – test
Jesse Lonergan (hamstring) – 2-3 weeks
Michael Rischitelli (elbow) – 2-3 weeks
Tom Lynch (knee) – indefinite
Brandon Matera (ankle) – indefinite
Jeremy Taylor (finger) – indefinite
Zac Smith (knee) – season
Next Five Weeks
Collingwood
Round 18 – Greater Western Sydney at the MCG
Round 19 – Essendon at the MCG
Round 20 – Sydney at ANZ Stadium
Round 21 – Hawthorn at the MCG
Round 22 – West Coast at the MCG
Gold Coast
Round 18 – Carlton at Metricon Stadium
Round 19 – West Coast at Patersons Stadium
Round 20 – Melbourne at Metricon Stadium
Round 21 – Port Adelaide at AAMI Stadium
Round 22 – St Kilda at Etihad Stadium
