Matthew Lloyd rips Gold Coast Suns as 'damning' vision comes to light

The Gold Coast Suns have been slammed by AFL great Matthew Lloyd in the wake of their 53-point thrashing at the hands of St Kilda last weekend. The Essendon champion says any hope of the Suns making their first finals appearance since joining the league should be tempered, honing in on several defensive lapses a week after they upset reigning premiers Geelong.

Despite the win over the Cats being their only one of the season so far, after losses to Sydney and Essendon in the opening two rounds, there was belief that the Suns had shown more of what they were truly capable of in 2023. Lloyd was not one of them however, pointing out that there had been many times in the Suns' history where they had played an impressive win only to fall completely flat one week later.

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After a promising start in the first quarter the Suns were completely overrun by the Saints, who have looked revitalised through four rounds after the return of Ross Lyon as head coach. A two-point Suns lead at quarter time evaporated into a 22-point deficit at the half, with the Saints going on to boot nine goals to the Suns' four in the second half.

Lloyd identified vision of Suns recruit Ben Long allowing former St Kilda teammate Marcus Windhager to run past him to take an uncontested mark in the forward line. Another moment showed Ben King allowing his direct opponent, St Kilda defender Callum Wilkie, an unchecked run at the ball which directly lead to a St Kilda goal.

After Saints forward Jack Higgins took a mark inside 50 in another clip, opponent Wil Powell helped him to his feet in another sign Lloyd said indicated the Suns simply weren't competitive enough. All-Australian Jack Sinclair was also given all but free reign in St Kilda's forward 50, another cause for concern to Lloyd.

“After quarter-time, I thought it was the type of footy you’d see in their initial years of their formation as a football club,” Lloyd told the Sunday Footy Show.

“I don’t know how (Suns coach) Stuart Dew addresses this, on his players or on himself, because that is just not AFL standard football. That was damning and as bad as it gets.”

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Fellow AFL great David King was equally disappointed in the Suns' showing against the Saints. After pointing his own set of Gold Coast defensive lapses on Fox Footy, he said it was reasonable to begin questioning the direction of the club, which has failed to make much impact since joining the AFL in 2010.

“How does happen? I don’t think you can wear that,” King said. “As a coach, you’ve got to walk in and say we’re going to go through this, we’re going to identify what’s going wrong.

“Otherwise another year falls away. I’m not blaming the senior players, but you’re all there, they’re your men half the time.”

King said the Suns were too reliant on a handful of star players, and when they were ineffective the Suns were not getting enough support from the rest of their team. He also questioned the strategy and fitness of the Gold Coast midfield.

“You talk about the pressure cooker being ramped up. When it ramps up, they need to be able to spread the load and the stars need to be able to be the reason you win, clearly, but not be the sole reason you win,” he said.

“I think they get too much licence to just be centre-bounce midfielders all the time and there’s fatigue that sets in. When fatigue sets in with these guys, they become really disorganised around stoppage.”

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