On paper, many predicted a near full-strength West Coast Eagles side would easily account for an inexperienced Gold Coast SUNS lineup in their second NAB Challenge clash on Thursday.
The Eagles squad featured 15 members from last year’s Grand Final team and while the SUNS featured just one player past the 100-game threshold in captain Jarrod Harbrow (West Coast had 13).
However, a young Gold Coast side showed tremendous fight for the duration, leading at every change before going down by three points, defeated with the final kick of the night; a goal to Jeremy McGovern.
READ: Gritty performance by young SUNS
Coach Rodney Eade was delighted with his team’s performance against the odds.
“For three and a half quarters I was really thrilled with what we were able to produce ourselves,” Eade told reporters in his post-match press conference.
“The effort I think was the main thing. I think we won contested ball by one against a team that’s a really good contested ball side and our tackles won by 14.
“So I thought our pressure was really good. I thought the effort from the younger guys was terrific, so across the board there’s a lot to like.”
While there was a plethora of positives to take from the game, it was the younger players adherence to the game plan that pleased Eade the most with ball movement, structures and defensive pressure all shining lights.
“I think things that we’ve tried to put into place over the last three or four months you can see some real signs, even with younger players today,” Eade said.
“It was tough conditions as we said with the wind, I thought our ball movement at times was really pleasing what we were trying to do with intent so that was a positive.
WATCH: Match Highlights
“But I think it was more our ability to put some pressure when we looked outnumbered at times and be able to hang into the contest.
“In the end it was probably just the bigger bodies, maybe a bit more experience around the contest that maybe counted against us but I think our young players really held in there pretty well.”
