Gold Coast SUNS Chairman John Witheriff this evening addressed the football community at the 2011 AFL Season launch in Melbourne.
This is a proud and historic occasion for the Gold Coast SUNS tonight.
It’s also a humbling one.
Humbling because tonight we become part of Australia’s premier sporting competition.
Humbling because tonight we become part of the long and rich history of Australia’s greatest game.
Humbling because tonight we take our place alongside some of Australia’s most famous football clubs.
Clubs like Collingwood, born out of working class origins in inner Melbourne nearly 120 years ago.
Clubs like Melbourne, established in 1858 and Australia’s oldest football club.
Clubs like Carlton and Essendon, boasting 32 VFL-AFL premierships between them.
I could go on and on because everywhere you look in this game is a great story. A story of not only great clubs but the wonderful people and characters that make them what they are.
Soon the Gold Coast SUNS will write the next chapter in what we hope will become our long and rich history.
A history that will make the Gold Coast community proud.
A history that will do justice to this great game.
A history that will do faith to you who helped make this club possible.
Because without the support of the other AFL clubs represented here tonight, the Gold Coast SUNS would remain just an idea. A pipe dream.
That the dream is now a reality is in no small way thanks to the unity of the people in this room. People who took a leap of faith that would change the game forever.
People who put the interests of the game ahead of their own. People who know that together we can achieve so much more than we can by ourselves.
And in 16 days from now this unity and good will will come to an end when the Gold Coast SUNS plays its first game in the AFL.
Well, it couldn’t last forever could it?
When our boys run onto the Gabba to play Carlton on April the 2nd, we will become just another AFL club fighting for the ultimate glory.
The moment of truth will have arrived. It will be game on.
But this is the truly great thing about the AFL. As fierce as the competition is, and as tough as the battle will be on the field, I know that off the field we will continue to work together to achieve great things for this great game.
A game that not only makes an impression on the field, but also leaves its mark off the field.
A game that is deeply entrenched in the community in which it operates.A game that can and does make a difference.
We want to be all that and more at Gold Coast. We want to be a club that puts something back into the community.
We want to be a club that drives benefits for the whole community to share, be it sporting, economic or social.
Winning is important. But strong values are everything.
We hope we can make our supporters and the people of the Gold Coast proud.
We hope we can make you proud.
And we hope we can do the great game of Australian Football proud.
Before I finish tonight I’d like to present Andrew with a framed Gold Coast SUNS Guernsey.
We hope this can sit alongside other memorabilia at the AFL and be a memento of the AFL’s newest club, the Gold Coast SUNS.
