To our members and fans,
We are so excited to create history this weekend when our SUNS AFLW team run out for the very first time. It’s been a challenging but fun pre-season for us as our 30 players built resilience, comradery and developed into a tight-knit unit. It’s crazy to think that just four months ago we were all sitting in a room for the first time, about to begin our journey, wondering how we would come together as a family and how we could each contribute. The culture we’ve developed in that time is strong and we can’t wait to show you how far we’ve come when we hit the park for the first time this weekend.
The support from all of you in that time has been phenomenal. We are extremely proud to be the first female national sporting team on the Gold Coast and to represent this great region on a national level on the big stage. You came out to support us through our Winter Series, signed up as foundation members, attended our AFLW events and commented on our social media. Thank you for welcoming and supporting us, it means the world to us to have you in our corner for the 2020 season and beyond.
For the two of us, we’re embracing the challenge of a new start with the SUNS. We recognise the opportunities in front of us and are extremely proud of what we’ve helped build at the club so far. Starting from scratch, the SUNS are building a successful female football program from the ground up, both on and off the field. We have been provided with great resources and extended every opportunity available to perform as elite athletes. We believe our club is truly one of the most integrated in the country and it’s so refreshing to be able to chat to the boys in the hallways or in the gym and to be able to support each other. There’s a great vibe around the club and it’s encouraging to see them leaving no stone unturned in their pursuit of success. We wish them the best of luck in their season this year.
Finally, there’s one more thing we want to ask of you – our loyal members and fans. In just over a week we will be playing our first ever home game at Metricon Stadium. We would absolutely love to see you fill the stands to cheer us on. Some of our girls have never experienced playing in front of a crowd of hundreds of people, let alone the thousands that we’re sure we’ll see flooding through the gates on February 15. We’ll need you to make plenty of noise, because trust us – we can hear you and it might just get us over the line.
We look forward to seeing some of you at our game in Blacktown this Saturday, for those who can’t make it – we hope you can tune in at midday to watch us make history. The match will be live on Fox Footy, Kayo or 7mate (check your local guide). All matches are also streamed live through womens.afl and the AFLW Official App.
We value the contribution of Indigenous cultures to our club and look forward to wearing our Indigenous clash guernseys to celebrate this in Round One!
Once again, we thank you for your support in our debut season. Go Suns!
Your captains,
Leah Kaslar and Sam Virgo
Challenge Accepted.
