There is a beautiful photograph of Lachie Gulbin on the Burleigh Bombers Facebook page from last year which encapsulates the glorious journey that is AFL football.

There is a beautiful photograph of Lachie Gulbin on the Burleigh Bombers Facebook page from last year which encapsulates the glorious journey that is AFL football.

It is a Facebook post which congratulates Gulbin on making his senior QAFL debut with Broadbeach in June last year.

In a family moment which makes all the hard work and sacrifices worthwhile, he is pictured with parents Jason and Symeko and Broadbeach 2021 premiership player, 2022 B&F winner and playing life member Brandon Chadwick, who presented his #54 Cats jumper.

This was only about 12 months after Gulbin had earned his first senior jumper at Burleigh, where he won a QAFL Division Two South premiership in 2023.

And now, in one of the biggest weeks in Gold Coast SUNS history, an 18-year-old Gulbin and his family will go through it all again. Except on a much bigger scale.

Nine months after he joined the SUNS as an Academy pre-selection at the 2024 Rookie Draft, Gulbin will make his AFL debut against Port Adelaide at Adelaide Oval on Friday night in a game which could play a role in seeing the SUNS qualify for finals.

He was told of his selection by coach Damien Hardwick on Wednesday and will become the sixth player in SUNS history to wear the #39 jumper at AFL level.

It will be a high-pressure debut at Adelaide Oval, where the SUNS have never won, as Port Adelaide farewell 13-year coach Ken Hinkley and games record-holder Travis Boak.

Gulbin will follow Sam Day, who played his first seven games in #31 in 2011, Timmy Sumner, who wore #39 11 times in 2013, Louis Herbert, who wore it three times in 2014, Ryan Davis, who carried #39 in 21 games in 2016-17, and Nick Holman, who were #39 62 times from 2018-21 before switching to #7 in 2022.

It’s a number worn most often in the AFL by Geelong’s Darren Milburn at 292 games, but was first made famous on the Gold Coast when it was the identifying moniker of Warwick Capper during his stint with the Brisbane Bears from 1988-90.

Gulbin will become SUNS player #155 after he kicked a season-high three goals in the VFL last week against GWS at PFS.

Set to become the first ‘Gulbin’ to play in the AFL, he’ll be club’s fourth AFL debutant of 2025 after StreetSmarts SUNS Academy graduate Leo Lombard, supplementary selection Ben Jepson and mid-season draftee Oscar Adams, and the 37thdifferent player used in Hardwick’s second season.

Gulbin’s debut will cap a career which has taken him through Burleigh, Carrara, Broadbeach and the SUNS Academy, where he impressed last year in four games in the Coates Talent League and 10 games in the VFL.

Known for his competitiveness and tackling pressure, the 187cm medium forward was a member of the Academy leadership group last year and was drafted with Max Knobel and Asher Eastham in the 2024 Rookie Draft on 22 November – two days before his 18th birthday.

He’ll be the second Burleigh junior to debut with the SUNS this year after Lombard, and the sixth to play at AFL level after Lombard, Bodhi Uwland, Brayden Crossley, Jacob Dawson and North Melbourne’s Bailey Scott.

Burleigh officials are optimistically looking forward to the 2025 AFL Draft and the prospects of junior stars Zeke Uwland, younger brother of the B&F runner-up of 2024, Beau Addinsall and Jai Murray.

Gulbin will be the 13th Queensland football product on the 2025 SUNS list who have played at senior level after Connor Budarick, Sam Closehy, Alex Davies, Caleb Graham, Will Graham, Lombard, Ethan Read, Jake Rogers, Alex Sexton, Uwland, Jed Walter and Lachie Weller.