They have lost their brightest young star and arrived by stealth in the middle of the night. But the Gold Coast Suns hope that bottling some Wollongong magic will help them return to the winners' circle.
Subscribe now for unlimited access.
$0/
(min cost $0)
or signup to continue reading
A 29-man Suns squad - including the injured Matt Rowell - landed in town around 1am on Sunday, just hours after their 37-point loss to the Cats in Geelong.
The newly dubbed "South" Coast Suns will tackle Melbourne and Sydney during their two-week quarantine in Wollongong, as part of sweeping changes brought into effect due to the COVID-19 crisis in Victoria.
With their record standing at 3-2, the next fortnight will prove crucial to Gold Coast's fortunes. They will go into the period without Rowell - the early season favourite for the Rising Star Award - after the midfielder suffered a serious shoulder injury in Saturday night's defeat, falling awkwardly in a tackle by Brandon Parfitt.
Suns coach Stuart Dew admits that last year's No1. AFL draft pick's injury is a major blow, but told reporters after the game that his players would remain upbeat.
"He will need a scan on his shoulder. He will come with us to NSW and we'll go from there," Dew said.
"He's probably not a great gauge because he said it doesn't feel too bad, but any shoulder that pops out is going to be a bit sore and we'll see what the damage is there. But obviously his health is our number one priority. He wanted to come back on, but it was the right call by our medical department, regardless of what happened for a 19-year-old.
"I know we talk about him a lot, but with good reason. His build up is so professional and he's just a pleasure to deal with. All of the talk about who would play on him [against Geelong], he was just keen to impact in the midfield. I'm not sure he's aware of the outside stuff, he just concentrates on the task at hand.
"Regardless of what comes for him, we will wrap our arms around him and keep him involved. He was down on the bench in the second half with the lads. Although he will be quite disappointed with where he sits at the moment, he will be team first to get around the players.
"It's just a shame for everyone involved [in] watching footy."
The Suns have been flying since the AFL competition's re-start in mid-June. They sealed thumping wins over West Coast and the Crows, and pipped Fremantle by 13 points, before falling to Geelong. Despite the defeat, Dew said there were plenty of positive signs.
"Geelong were really hard in the contest and full credit to them. They not only matched us, they beat us inside and were able to get the game going on their terms," Dew said.
"We showed glimpses where we fought back and got on top in those areas, but not for long enough. Their experience showed but the fact that our lads were in a good head space at three-quarter time and believed they could win.
"Obviously the [final] margin suggests otherwise, but we still wanted to have a crack at moving the footy, taking the game on and play an exciting brand of footy. We got opened up a bit in the last due to that, but there's no better practise in an AFL game of footy - you can only do so much of that at training. But real life practise when you're trying to win is what we'll learn from."