On behalf of everyone at the Gold Coast SUNS I would like to take this opportunity to welcome Daniel Currie and Matt Rosa to the Gold Coast.

Both players add the expertise our football department identified prior to the exchange period and importantly are quality men who come from football clubs with successful programs, a strong culture and an experienced leadership group.

During the exchange period our List Management team have also significantly strengthened our future draft position.

In a period where we made some tough decisions, which had the unanimous support of our coaches and players, the introduction of trading future draft picks came at a fantastic time for our football club.

Part of our list management strategy going into the trade period was to spread our quality selections over two draft pools. Our recruiting team believe the quality of players in this year’s draft is particularly even, and are of the view the difference between pick No. 3 and No. 6 is marginal.

The 2016 draft is widely regarded to be considerably stronger than this year’s crop of young talent, hence the club’s desire to trade for future picks. And whilst we have not required points in the past, as our Academy improves, we will be requiring points to match other teams bids for Queensland players in the future.

To know that we will enter the 2015 and 2016 drafts with two first round picks as well as one second round pick in 2015 and four in 2016 means our list evolution continues to be in an incredibly healthy position. While we are committed to achieving the best results possible every single time we take the field, we are also mindful of learning from those clubs that have been strong and successful over an extended period of time. They are planning for today while always having an eye for tomorrow. Our focus is both on working hard every day to create a window of success for our club and ensuring we work just as hard to keep that window open for as long as possible. We are not setting a timeline on that period but I can tell you that as a club that is what we are focused on every day and every decision.

What also shapes as being in a healthy positon at the start of 2016 is our injury list.

The introduction of new personnel to our High Performance team has been endorsed by a large group of our players who have been in at the club during the off-season. They are really excited – as are we - by the new approach to High Performance and Justin Cordy and his team bring an experience and expertise to the club that we think will have a demonstrable impact on the preparation and rehabilitation of players. We had to fight hard to secure Justin’s signature but it also demonstrated a resolve to do what we have to do to push this club forward. Significantly our players, led by the Player Leadership Group have stood with us as we made changes to both the playing list and to our high performance areas.

This group includes some of our most important players who had their years written-off by injury in 2015. Gary Ablett, Jaeger O’Meara, Dion Prestia and David Swallow have all benefited greatly in recent weeks and can’t wait to return for official pre-season training. The competition for a spot in our midfield is going to be enormous given we have seen such growth in players like Aaron Hall, Touk Miller, Alex Sexton, Adam Saad, Brandon Matera and Jesse Lonergan.

Earlier in the year, when we were facing up to and dealing with many issues we told you, we will be judged by our supporters, the football community and the wider Gold Coast community by our actions. We wanted to make it clear that as leaders of this club we are committed to ensuring that our actions – and the actions of all in our club - reflect our words.

We believe to date we have demonstrated that over the off season. We have made the necessary changes to our list and also addressed the high performance concerns that were clearly visible to you all in 2015.

Rodney Eade and his coaching staff are thrilled at what Justin and his team can bring, they are thrilled with the inclusion of Matt and Daniel and the commitment of the playing group and they are thrilled by our strengthened position in the draft. They just want to get on with it.  And so do we.

We now look to the National Draft in Adelaide on November 24 with selections 6, 16, 29 & 56. The draft will provide us the opportunity to secure the next wave of talented players to our club.

We look forward to our players returning for pre-season training, each of them reenergised and raring to get back for a bigger and better 2016.

Andrew Travis
Chief Executive