The Gold Coast SUNS game plan over the past couple of years has revolved around winning the contested football and effectively spreading to outside runners.

Statistics from Champion Data show there is a direct correlation between contested footy and winning percentage.

After an impressive first season with lighter bodies, Gold Coast regressed in 2012 to finish last in the competition for contested possessions. It has been a team focus to win the contested footy and the results show – 12th in the AFL in 2013 for eight wins and 4th in the AFL in 2014 for ten wins.

Of the SUNS’ ten wins in 2014, the team won the contested football count eight times with the two blips on the radar coming against St Kilda in round 9 (133-140) and Western Bulldogs in round 10 (139-144). The biggest differential came in the round 3 53-point mauling of the Brisbane Lions where the GC SUNS won the contested possession count 171-136.

Tellingly, Gold Coast trailed in contested possessions in 11 of the 12 losses suffered by the team, with the only difference being the free-flowing round 23 clash against West Coast where both teams had nothing to play for. The two heavy defeats to eventual premier Hawthorn showed what the SUNS need to aspire to where they were smashed in the contested possessions 144-175 in round 4 at Metricon Stadium and 149-172 in round 15 in soggy conditions in Launceston.

The loss of skipper Gary Ablett in round 16 to a season-ending shoulder injury certainly impacted the team’s contested possession-count according to the numbers, with the SUNS averaging a differential of -12 for the final seven rounds of the season compared to -0.75 for the first 16 rounds.

For the first ten rounds of the season, where the SUNS had a win-loss record of 7-2, the team’s contested football differential was +2.89.

To put the above stats in perspective, when the team won just three games in 2012, the GC SUNS had a contested possession differential of -15.3, which was the worst in the competition.

Despite a poor finish to the season, pleasingly four GC SUNS players finished in the top 40 in the AFL for average contested possessions per game and all improved significantly on their 2013 averages.