JUST two games into Damien Hardwick’s second season in charge, Gold Coast is showing strong signs of the Richmond gameplan that took the coach and his former club to three premierships in four years.
But there’s one big difference.
Unlike the Tiger teams that saluted in 2017, 2019 and 2020, this current Suns unit prioritises winning clearances.
They have belted the Eagles and Demons at the coalface, and with Sam Flanders, Bailey Humphrey and Will Graham also playing strong roles in the middle of the ground, have camped the ball inside 50 and protected their defence at the same time.
The Richmond dynasty was fine losing clearances (they were ranked last in differential across that four-year span), but as we’ll read later, prioritised winning it back and transitioning with speed.
Now, with a second pre-season to coach his team, the same assistants by his side, 25 games with the same players and the additions of Daniel Rioli and John Noble – two men that know the system well – Hardwick’s fingerprints are all over the Suns.
With the caveat applied that it’s just two matches at this stage, statistics supplied by Champion Data show just how similar the current Suns are to the prime Tigers.
They’ve generated 27 forward-half intercepts a game, the same as prime Richmond, and scoring potently once it goes back in (64 points a game).
But the real change has come from behind centre.
With Rioli, who Hardwick coached for eight seasons at Punt Road, and Noble, who recently played beneath Craig McRae at Collingwood – a team that also plays a similar style to Hardwick – the Suns are moving with speed.
Throw in the pinpoint kicking of Wil Powell from defence, along with Lachie Weller and Connor Budarick on the wings, and suddenly the Suns have speed and quality ball use all over the field.
They have moved the ball from defensive 50 to inside 50 almost one in three times this season, with a score resulting one in six times, eerily similar numbers to those generated by the champion Tigers.
You’ll notice a lot more forward handballs too.
Although not at the level of Richmond, Gold Coast is gaining 348m by hand to launch their attack.
The only slight drawback at this early stage of the season is the number of scores conceded by the Suns per inside 50.
While they’ve conceded the fewest entries in the competition, they are giving up a score almost every second time.
The inflated positive numbers will inevitably tail off as the competition stiffens – starting with Adelaide at People First Stadium on Saturday – but the evidence is there that Dimma’s Way has now landed at Carrara.
