Gold Coast Football Club has made seven important changes to its squad for this Saturday’s game against an experienced Collingwood side at Fankhauser Reserve, Southport at 2.00pm.
(Wet Weather- all games will proceed as planned)
Nathan Ablett and Charlie Dixon both return from injury to bolster GCFC’s forward stocks. Skipper Marc Lock, Danny Stanley, Hayden Jolly, Brandon Matera, and Taylor Hine all rejoin the side.
The full team is:
B: Mitch HARLEY Michael GUGLIOTTA Roland AH CHEE
HB: Taylor HINE Jack HUTCHINS Michael COAD
C: Matthew SHAW David SWALLOW Sam ILES
HF: Luke RUSSELL Charlie DIXON Lewis MOSS
F: Brandon MATERA Nathan ABLETT Alik MAGIN
R: Zac SMITH Marc LOCK (c) Daniel HARRIS
INT: Rory THOMPSON Brad REES Piers FLANAGAN Danny STANLEY Hayden JOLLY
IN: Marc LOCK Brandon MATERA Taylor HINE Charlie DIXON
Danny STANLEY Hayden JOLLY Nathan ABLETT
OUT: Maverick WELLER Liam PATRICK Rex LIDDY Luke SHREEVE
Stanis SUSUVE Trent McKENZIE Joey DAYE (all rested)
Senior Coach Guy McKenna says he is excited by the challenge of confronting arguably the most experienced VFL squad in the competition.
“It’s a fantastic opportunity for us to test our wares. It’s probably the first time we’ve come up against individuals with more than 100 games of experience under their belts. You’re talking about a team including around ten or eleven AFL listed or rookied players running around. Among those will be the likes of Tarkyn Lockyer, Josh Fraser and Simon Prestigiacomo. There’ll be more than 800 games of experience out there.”
Hot on the heels of the club’s first VFL win against Geelong and with a timely bye under their belts, McKenna says the test posed by Collingwood couldn’t have come at a better point in the season.
“If we’d come up against such an experienced side in rounds one or two we wouldn’t have been nearly fit enough. In addition to the physical size of some of the guys we’ll be playing against there’s fellas like Barham and Cook who are extremely hard runners. Early in the year we had six or seven guys cramping up. It could have been a whole lot more if we copped Collingwood back then. But now we’ve got six rounds under our belt and players have rested up when they’ve been rotated in and out, so now’s as good a time as any to see our boys take on this kind of challenge.”
This week’s curtain raisers will be played between Surfers Paradise and Coolangatta in both Seniors and Reserves. Those matches start at 9.00am and 11.15am respectively.
• For the first time this year, GCFC’s side will not include any debuting players.
• Danny Stanley and Sam Iles will be out impress against their former club - both enjoyed stints on Collingwood’s list before moving north.
• The game will be Senior Coach Guy McKenna’s first hit out against the club where he cut his coaching teeth – McKenna spent five as an assistant coach at Collingwood under the mentorship of Collingwood senior coach Mick Malthouse and alongside current Collingwood VFL coach Gavin Brown.
• Collingwood sits fifth on the VFL ladder with four wins and two losses.
The GCFC website will also have live scoring during the game- look for the scoreboard on the homepage! For more game day information click here.
