NEAFL ROUND 4
Saturday, April 27, 2019
Gold Coast Suns (7th) vs Brisbane Lions (1st)
Metricon Stadium, 10.00am
Click here for the livestream.
SUMMARY
The much-anticipated QClash has arrived with both the Lions and SUNS AFL and NEAFL sides hitting it out at Metricon Stadium this Saturday. The Lions are playing some brilliant football, accounting for Aspley last weekend to sit atop the NEAFL ladder with a healthy list.
It’s a different story for the SUNS, who lost on the road to the GIANTS on Easter Saturday. Gold Coast was outplayed for the most part, with a five goal to two final quarter helping aid the score line.
Although the two sides have had different starts to 2019, expect a competitive battle as the SUNS look to score bragging rights on their home deck.
RECENT ENCOUNTERS
Round 20, 2018: Brisbane 17.15 (117) d Gold Coast 2.8 (26) at Metricon Stadium.
Round 17, 2018: Brisbane 11.16 (82) d Gold Coast 10.1 (70) at Metricon Stadium.
Round 6, 2018: Brisbane 12.24 (96) d Gold Coast 0.4 (4) at Moreton Bay Sports Complex.
TALKING POINTS
1. Coming in to Round 4 and you could not talk about two more opposite teams at the moment. The Lions are flying at 3-0 on top of the ladder, whilst the SUNS sit at 0-3. They were quite evenly matched against the GIANTS last week, but were on the back foot early with a six-goal-to-one opening term, and couldn’t claw back the deficit. A consistent four quarters of footy is what coach Nick Malceski will be wanting from his troops this week.
2. Brisbane is conquering everything in its sight at the moment registering 65,95 & 48 point victories with a healthy percentage of 255 per cent to sit atop the NEAFL after three rounds. The Lions lead the competition in inside 50s, contested possessions and contested marks through three rounds. They are playing a hard-nose, attacking brand of football and are looking red hot as a result.
3. Gold Coast’s first quarter performances have been poor to start the season – trailing by 26, 17 and 29 at the end of each first quarter in each of their first three matches. The key to a revival for the SUNS looks to be starting matches better and not having to play catch up from word go.
ROOKIE WATCH
Fitzroy Greenwool was impressive for the SUNS in a losing outfit last week, finding 15 possessions, a goal as well as four tackles.
STATS THAT MATTER
Gold Coast and Brisbane sit atop the clearance and hard ball gets numbers after three rounds. So, despite the contrasting results the midfield battle this weekend should be elite as both team’s midfields battle it out off the back of two dominant ruckmen in Archie Smith and Tom Nicholls.
Team:
B: 45. J Dawson 46. C Graham 21. J Leslie
HB: 52. L McDonald 34. B King 43. J McLennan
C: 40. J Heron 2. A Miles 42. C Nutting
HF: 55. A Djurovitch 12. S Day 36. J Schoenfeld
F: 32. B Crossley 29. C Burgess 48. F Greenwool
R: 22. T Nicholls 18. B Scheer 15. A Young
Int: 56. H Arnold 53. C Beaman 58. Z Briggs 49. J Mohr 50. E Semaan
Emg: 24. A Swallow
