THE Gold Coast Football Club has registered its second win of the TAC Cup season after holding off a fast-finishing Gippsland Power at Carrara on Saturday night.

In what was the curtain raiser to the Carlton-Fremantle match at Gold Coast Stadium, the GCFC started strongly before falling over the line in a 12-7 (79) to 12-5 (77) win. They led by 29 points at the first change as skipper Marc Lock asserted his dominance up forward for the Coast. It looked like they would run away with the game, but the Power would not say die as they slowly but surely worked their way back into the game. The Power kicked four final quarter goals to get within two points with just over a minute remaining but the Coast grit their teeth and were able to hold on for the win.

Ruckman Zac Smith was the Coast’s best and continued his dominance of the TAC Cup this season. Midfielders Jack Stanley and Josh Thomas were in the best, along with forward Matt Fowler who played a lot of the match up the ground. Coach Guy McKenna said he was happy to get the win but admitted there was no back-slapping in the rooms afterwards.

“We lost a bit of focus on what we had to do collectively as a team,” he said. “It was good to hang on because the boys did work really hard in the first quarter and a half to build a lead like they did. It was probably just a bit disappointing that we let the opposition back in and didn’t play in the way we wanted to play.”

The Coast are back at Carrara on Saturday to take on the Dandenong Stingrays at 11.15am.

Nick Smart