Gold Coast Suns Round 1 Preview vs. Adelaide – Burgess’ Revenge

The Suns are going to stick with a winning formula on Saturday, no changes have been announced in the 23. So everyone gets a second chance to show their worth. I hoped this would be the case after opening round because you can’t really judge the ability of a backline on that game and the rest of the lines played well enough for none of them to be worth dropping.

The Crows should have played finals last year and will be desperate to finally make that step up. They rebuilt their squad around the same time as the Suns and have looked better for a at least a season now, plus they nabbed one of our best players in Rankine last year. Their ball movement is probably their biggest threat and should challenge the Suns’ adherence to the new plan.

Adelaide will bring with them another former Sun due to Taylor Walker and Riley Thilthorpe’s injuries, Chris Burgess will get to debut for his new club against his old club. I have to assume Collins and Ballard will be relishing the thought of lining up against their former team-mate who has yet to prove he can handle AFL-quality defenders like Big Sam and Chaz. Gollant and Fogarty are the other talls and one of them will have the height advantage on their opponent because the Suns have stuck with two talls. Powell may go to Gollant because of his lack of experience and may therefore get more opportunities to roam for the ball.

The question of how Adelaide will perform once Tex retires has been hovering for a while and we will get an early forecast of that on Saturday. On paper the Suns should be a match for the Crows attack. If they put up a big score that will be a tough early sign for Hardwick and a bit of a reality check after the Tigers game

The Suns small defenders will have a tougher job this week with Rankine and Rachele to deal with. This should be the first true test of how Sexton and his younger colleagues stack up. Last year Ben Long did a good job slowing Rankine up in Darwin. But this year I guess Budarick will probably have the speed to go with him and maybe Uwland goes to Rachele. Pedlar will add something too when he’s on so there won’t be any quiet moments in defence

In the midfield it’s a familiar matchup with Keays, Dawson, Laird and Berry around the middle. They are considered a bit one-paced as a group a bit like the Suns so it will be a question of who fights harder for it and which of Witts or O’Brien wins each tap. The ruck battle should be a pretty even contest so unless Rowell’s form continues the clearance battle should be fairly tight.

Adelaide are without Nick Murray down back but it’s still a very competent bunch that will require King and Lukosius to be switched on and consistently competitive in the air because Milera and Dawson will punish them on the counter. Hinge and Michalanney are proper shutdown defenders so Rosas will have really impressed if he shines again.

The questions for me remain how Sexton will settle down back and whether Ellis and Fiorini are still suited to the wing. They looked pretty comfortable in buildup last week while Richmond were still on their offseason. But Sexton worried me in terms of his approach around contest, if he charges in for the first ball that comes near him I will feel reassured.

Basically this is the real early litmus test. Opening round was a bit weird and we’re all a bit unsure about the Tigers. With each game we’re learning a bit more about what this lot are capable of and the Crows’ visit is another step up. The Suns should be slight favourites for this one especially since they have already had a game to get them up to speed. You would expect Hardwick will be pushing the boys to start fast and catch a travelling team napping in their opener. Then coast to an easy win I guess. Of course it almost certainly won’t be that easy but we can dream.