A group of 90+ players started in our program over a trial and testing day to put their best foot forward to be named in the initial squad of around 70 for the GC/NR SUNS U16 development pre-season phase.

This involved 2 x pre-season training sessions per week from November until the start of February. Phase 1 of our program also consists of 2 weekends of trial games, the first of which was played on the weekend showcasing some good football across both games.

Game 1

Gold Coast White: 6-10-46
Gold Coast Red: 6-7-43
Best GC WHITE: Austin Harris, Bodhi Uwland, Zach Nussey, Cade Gregory, Cody Harrington
Best GC RED: Connor Matheson, Will Bella, Brinn Little, Josh Smart, Jared Eckersley

Summary: An 8:00am start saw the boys encounter dewy conditions for the first half which saw the ball on the deck and those that have worked hard on their groundballs and touch over the pre-season were the players to standout. Gold Coast white started the game well and were on top for the early stages of the match. Gold Coast Red fought their way back by getting on top around the contest and outnumbering the whites when it mattered, using the ball well with run and carry when the conditions dried up. Gold Coast White players started to control the last ¼ and held off a comeback by Red by taking the game with a close fought 3-point win.

Game 2

Gold Coast Blue: 15-4-94
Northern Rivers Grey: 5-1-31 
Best GC BLUE: Finn Brown, Hamilton Howard, Connor Vincent, Jackson Griffiths, Leo Trueman
Best NR GREY: Kesh Raju, Noah Chapman, Jed Foggo, Max Salisbury, Oscar Stephens

Summary: There was a lot of hype around this Northern Rivers squad from the way they performed at the U14 State Championships in 2017. A squad that has some kids with great attitudes and ability was spoken about as being the pick of these two trial games. The NR group were slow to adapt to the standard of football and GC Blue took the upper hand in the first ¼ and maintained their hardness and attack on the ball at the contest to control the game from start to finish. There was some good football played by GC Blue especially around the contest with the boys first to react and to win the ball in close and also showed some promise with some good outside run and ball use. Gold Coast Blue were well on top and the pressure applied, didn’t allow Northern Rivers to get back into the game and ran away 10 goal winners. 

Week 2 trial games conclude this Saturday with the following games: 

Game 1
Northern Rivers GREY V Gold Coast RED @ 9:00am (NSW Time)

Game 2
Gold Coast WHITE V Gold Coast BLUE @ 10:50am (NSW Time)

The U16 Gold Coast SUNS Academy Squad for 2019 will be announced on Monday February 25 at the conclusion of two weeks of trial games and an AFLX carnival run by AFLQ.