Jake MichaelsMar 6, 2026, 07:17 AM
CloseJake Michaels is a Melbourne-based sports writer who has worked for ESPN since 2013. He primarily writes on the AFL, but his assignments have taken him all around the world, covering everything from Formula One to Grand Slam tennis, championship boxing to international basketball, and the Olympic Games.
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When Damien Hardwick was unveiled as Gold Coast’s newest coach in August of 2023, the three-time premiership-winning master tactician made it clear that he believed his new club was on the doorstep of success. He spoke at length about the direction the Suns were heading, the board’s achievable objectives, and then declared that 80% of the side that would deliver the club’s maiden flag was already on the list.
It was a proclamation that felt equal parts media spin and equal parts internal motivation for an organisation that had been anchored to the bottom third of the AFL ladder for basically the entirety of its existence. Aside from Hardwick, there weren’t too many in footy circles who believed his grandiose statement to be true.
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And while it hasn’t yet fully come to fruition, since then, the Suns have been on a stark rise. Under Hardwick, Gold Coast has enjoyed its two most successful seasons, shaking the “irrelevant” tag that’s forever plagued the club. An 11-win 2024 campaign was backed up by a maiden finals appearance — and finals win — last year, just a fortnight before star midfielder Matt Rowell was crowned the 2025 Brownlow medallist.
With the dynamic Christian Petracca and uber-talented Jamarra Ugle-Hagan joining the fold over the summer as part of the “other” 20%, the Suns now head into a season as not only a bona fide premiership contender for the first time in club history, but perhaps the greatest threat to state rival Brisbane and its quest of a dynasty-cementing threepeat.
“There’s been a pretty clear message in the group that we want to be a great team, not just an alright team,” Suns captain Noah Anderson tells ESPN on the eve of the 2026 season. “There’s been a lot of talk about last year, and it was a good year for the club, no doubt, but ultimately that’s not what we’re trying to get to. We’re trying to contend later in the year.
Noah Anderson and Matt Rowell celebrate Gold Coast’s finals win over Fremantle. Michael Willson/AFL Photos via Getty Images
“I want to see progress from where we were last year. I feel like we’re going to get that just through being aware of where we are at and understanding that we’re not celebrating that we were a finals team last year. I think it’s the best list that I’ve personally been a part of. It’s now on us and how good of a spot we can put ourselves in [throughout the home and away season] to make sure we compete at the back end of the year.”
The Suns finished last year’s home and away season in seventh place, but boasted the fourth-best percentage (124.9%) in the competition. Had the club not slipped up on the road in its penultimate game against the struggling Power (albeit in Ken Hinkley’s farewell), Gold Coast would have finished in the top four and secured the prized double chance.
Instead, Hardwick’s squad travelled to Optus Stadium and stunned the Dockers by a solitary point in an all-time classic elimination final. And while it was unable to back up that heart-stopping performance the following week at the Gabba, falling to the Lions by 53 points in a one-sided semifinal, the taste of finals football lit a fire in the playing group that’s been burning all summer.
“For us, that finals conversation had happened for a long time. A lot of it was us being told that we should be there and we could be there,” said Anderson. “As a group, we’d never actually experienced what it was like. So, to go over there and experience a finals game and atmosphere … it’s something you only really learn from being through it.
“It went to the next level the week after against Brisbane, where we learned a different sort of lesson than against Freo. But both are just as valuable as each other, and moving forward, having that sort of experience, I think it’s extremely beneficial that we understand now that that’s what a finals game is.”
The Suns line up ahead of their 2024 semifinal against Brisbane. Chris Hyde/AFL Photos/via Getty Images
Someone who knows all about football in September is Petracca, the club’s marquee offseason recruit. The 2021 Norm Smith Medal winner crossed from the Demons during the trade period and looms as the experienced star who can help take Gold Coast to the next level. At Melbourne, Petracca split his time between the midfield and forward line, but it appears the Suns plan to utilize the superstar on ball as much as possible in 2026.
“He’ll probably spend a bit of time forward; he’s pretty dangerous down there [but] the majority of time he will be in the midfield,” Anderson said of Petracca. “He just adds a whole new dynamic in there for us.
“He’s someone who has got so many strengths and someone who has been at the top of his game for so long. He’s dynamic, he’s powerful, he’s someone we can really work around. I’m really excited by it.”
Gold Coast may be the fourth-youngest side in the competition by age and fifth-least experienced by games played, but what this club has is a strong, developing core that’s been building together, under Hardwick, over the last few seasons. The Suns have 14 players who have featured in at least 100 games and nine players aged under 26 who have played at least 40 games. Compare that latter number to Collingwood, which has just two.
Christian Petracca is an A-grade addition to the Suns in 2026. Albert Perez/Getty Images
It’s part of the reason why bookmakers have installed the club as the second favourite for this year’s premiership. And if Hardwick’s troops are to be a bone fide flag contender in 2026, it will need to relish being hunted by its opposition week in, week out.
“It’s obviously a new experience for us to head into a new year with higher expectations than in the past,” Anderson tells ESPN. “But that’s what we’ve wanted for a long time. I’m confident with what we’re doing at the club, how our preseason has been, and how we’ve been framing the year. I think we’re taking the right steps.”