Anderson’s clutch goal was the exclamation mark on a season in which Gold Coast have finally earned respect
It shouldn’t have got to that point. The Suns were 40 points down and playing as badly as they have this year – turning the ball over, missing tackles and allowing Shai Bolton to run riot. But they found their grunt, and the visitors got the staggers. As impressive and important a win as this was for the Suns, it was a game Richmond threw away. Spilt chest marks, set-shot sodas, open-goal squanders – it was a comedy of errors in the second half.
But they actually weren’t that bad last year. They were stiff in a number of close games. They lost their captain, ruckman and their best young player for the best part of the season. Even in the off-season, they just couldn’t cop a break. Ben King’s knee buckled in a training drill. “That’s just footy,” he said. There was immediate speculation on whether he’d be snapped up by a Melbourne club. The pressure on Stuart Dew intensified.