The Gold Coast SUNS seconds have stunned the UWS Giants with an incredible come-from-behind victory against the powerful interstate visitors.
The Gold Coasters had trailed by 48-points midway through the second period.
It was a tough opening term for the Gold Coasters, with Shaun Hart’s playing group which consisted of just ten contracted Gold Coast SUNS players struggled to make the most of their limited opportunities around goals whilst the red-hot starting Giants made the home team hurt on the scoreboard – building a 30-point scoreboard margin at the first interchange.
Exciting rookie Jack Martin was heavily tagged by Giant’s young gun Stephen Coniglio in his return from a hamstring injury, the No. 2 in the 2011 AFL Draft following the Gold Coast’s teenage prodigy at every contest.
Gold Coast SUNS Vice-Captain Nathan Bock started in defence and for the majority of the first-half, battled against experienced forward Setanta O’hAilpin before being unleashed further up the ground around goals.
Liam Patrick was lively for much of the Round 19 fixture, emerging as a stand-out performer for the home team as the sneaky goal-sneak sparked a number of forward-50 opportunities in his bid to spark the Gold Coast in their revival towards claiming the Premiership Points.
But it was youngster Isaac Rokeby who stole the show for the Gold Coasters, the small-in-stature but big in heart North Queenslander called into the 22-man playing group on the eleventh hour after a heavy injury toll forced Hart’s hand with just ten senior-listed players.
The teenager finished with a game-high five goals in his first NEAFL Appearance for 2013.
After overcoming a 21-point third quarter-time scoreboard deficit to run away as victors against UWS in Round 13, the SUNS were always going to fancy themselves in the final term – and did exactly that with a blistering final period, with Hart’s senior-listed bodies taking it upon themselves to lift the SUNS to victory!
Jack Martin once again showed his class during the fourth period, while Clay Cameron proved to be instrumental as the last line of defence for the Gold Coasters – the Queenslander showing leadership and maturity beyond his years as he directed his troops within the defensive zones.
Arguably their greatest victory since being introduced to the interstate NEAFL competition, Hart said the resilience to never give up spoke volumes of the playing group.
“It was certainly an amazing victory,” he told goldcoastfc.com.au.
“They were a very strong team and for us to come back with a result like that was fantastic.”