Noah Anderson and teammates celebrate with the trophy after Gold Coast’s win over Brisbane at People First Stadium in round 20, 2025. Picture: AFL Photos
GOLD Coast started Saturday outside the top eight but will end it dreaming of “what may be” after thumping Brisbane by 66 points.
The Suns’ 12th win of the season will have them finishing round 20 well and truly in the finals picture and looking further up the ladder after belting the reigning premier.
Defeating Collingwood and Brisbane in the past three weeks, with a heavy loss to Adelaide sandwiched between, has left Gold Coast in a great place to strike with five games to come.
However, coach Damien Hardwick said his team had to keep its feet on the ground, mindful of a series of upcoming matches against teams they will be expected to beat.
SUNS v LIONS Full match coverage and stats
“At various stages we haven’t beaten those sides we should have beaten and that is going to be our next challenge,” he said.
“If we just maintain the consistency of our performance, if we concentrate firmly on the next shift, where our feet are right now, we are going to be ok.
“If we drift off that … then we are going to get beaten like most sides in the competition.
“It doesn’t really matter who we are playing or which people are in the jumpers, we just have to go out and play our way. If we do that more times than not, we are going to win more times than not.”
Gold Coast has Richmond (home), Carlton (away), Greater Western Sydney (home), Port Adelaide (away) and Essendon (home) as its remaining opponents.
Saturday’s win over the Lions was full of authority, led by a midfield that smashed their much vaunted opponents.
Gold Coast won the clearance battle 52-40, but more importantly kicked 13 goals from that score source, led by Marcus Ashcroft Medal winner Matt Rowell (37 disposals), captain Noah Anderson (33 and a goal) and ruckman Jarrod Witts.
“I speak about narratives a little bit,” Hardwick said.
“To change it you’ve got to win some games, especially against really good footy clubs and the last three weeks we’ve played three of the best.
“Two and one against those … what it probably does is instil a bit of confidence in what may be. We’re proud of the response.”
It’s exactly the type of response Brisbane coach Chris Fagan said he would be looking for next week when his team travels south to play Collingwood at the MCG.
Fagan made no excuses for the defeat, saying his midfield was badly outplayed.
“Outside the first 10 minutes … we had a game to forget, in a way,” he said.
“We haven’t played as poorly as that in a long, long time.
“Credit for that goes to the Gold Coast Suns. I’m not sitting here saying it was just us.
“They were on and we were off and they capitalised on that.”
Following four straight wins and entering the match in second spot, Fagan saw no sign of the performance coming, saying the Lions trained well during the week.
“It is hard to stay up every week, there’s no doubt about that,” he said.
“That’s part and parcel of the challenge.
“How you reflect on it really is how you react next week and how you play next week. We’ve got a pretty hard game, Collingwood at the MCG.
“I’m confident our group will respond, they normally do. Those who have followed the Lions wouldn’t have seen a performance like that too often in the past six years.”
The Lions will finish the round in second or third position with a tough run of matches ahead.
Following the Magpies, they host Sydney, travel to Optus Stadium to play Fremantle and finish the home and away campaign with Hawthorn at the Gabba.
“We’re just looking forward to the response now, that’s what you’ve got to do after a performance like that.
“We’ve been really good for quite a few weeks in a row, so there’s no good jumping at shadows either.”