There is no escaping or camouflaging the disappointment of the Gold Coast SUNS after their loss to the Brisbane Lions at the Gabba last Saturday. The numbers simply don’t lie.
There were more than a handful of all-time lows; most notably, the team’s disposal count of 272 was the lowest all-time, falling just below the 276 disposals they had against West Coast in Perth in 2012, when they lost by 120 points.
The disposal differential of “minus 127” was fourth worst in club history. The only times it has been worse were the “minus 180” count in the same game against the Eagles, and two 2011 games against Essendon (minus 141) and Geelong (minus 135), when they lost by 139 and 150 points respectively.
It was hardly the way 20-year-old ex-Ballarat Rebels redhead Louis Herbert would have hoped to make his first AFL appearance, becoming the SUNS’ 66th player overall, the 50th AFL debutant and the 8th elevated rookie behind Alik Magin and Joel Tippett (2011), Josh Hall, Kyal Horsley and Andrew McQualter (2012), Andrew Boston and Leigh Osborne (2013).
But without in any way providing any sort of alibi for Saturday’s 54-point loss to the Lions, or diluting coach McKenna’s “it’s not good enough” message, there were some noteworthy statistical moments:
- The SUNS had a club record 103 tackles. Yes, that means they didn’t have the ball. And yes, it was wet so there were more tackle situations. But in the three aforementioned 100-point losses in which the SUNS had a worse disposal differential than on Saturday their team tackle count was 46, 54 and 70. Jaeger O’Meara’s 13 tackles on Saturday was one short of Gary Ablett’s club record of 14 against Fremantle in 2011. Aaron Hall’s 10 tackles was an equal-personal best
- Steven May’s team-high 11 one-percenters against the Lions took his season tally to 184. This surpasses the club record for most one-percenters in a season of 183, set by Matthew Warnock in 2012 and Rory Thompson in 2013
- Sean Lemmens had an equal career-best 18 possessions for the second week in a row, and Alex Sexton’s three goals matched his career-best against West Coast in Perth last year
- Zac Smith’s 16 hit-outs before he succumbed to an ankle injury saw him become the first SUNS player to 1000 hit-outs in total, while Tom Lynch’s two contested marks made him the first SUNS player to 100 in total. Rory Thompson’s nine possessions saw him become the 23rd player to 500 career possessions for the club
- Jarrod Harbrow, Matt Shaw and David Swallow maintained their record of having played in each of the eight QClashes along with the Brisbane trio of Jed Adcock, Pearce Hanley and Tom Rockliff
