‘It breaks the ice’: Suns AFL milestone finally drags Gold Coast out of sporting graveyard | AFL

Twelve hours after the Gold Coast Suns secured their first AFL finals berth, an unusual sight played out on the grounds at Palm Beach Currumbin State High School, just down the M1 from People First Stadium.

The student-footballers in a programme that has produced more than 20 men’s and women’s AFL draftees were preparing for their club grand finals this weekend, and the coming climax to the Queensland schools competition.

But, given what had happened the previous night, there was something that took precedence. So one student began the physically-taxing “bear walk”, surrounded by the rest of the group – most members of the Suns academy – applauding the Bombers fan struggling on his hands and feet.

“One of our boys had a bet with our coach,” says Neil Mackay, the school’s head of sport. “He backed Essendon, and the bet was if you lose, you’ve got to do a hundred-metre bear walk.”

The veteran teacher has spent 35 years at the school, which has produced the likes of Dayne Beams and Sam Gilbert, and more recently emerging Suns’ stars Jed Walter and Will Graham. Like many on the Gold Coast, Mackay has witnessed more than his fair share of sporting misery. “The student was going for Essendon, so we made sure he paid up,” he says.

Make no mistake, these are strange days in Australia’s sixth-largest urban centre. After 326 AFL games and 15 years, the Suns are finally due to play their first final, against Fremantle next Saturday. “Sport’s really strong on the Gold Coast, we just haven’t quite got the success model right at that national level,” Mackay says. “It breaks the ice.”

Gold Coast United take on Newcastle at Skilled Park in 2010, when a then record low attendance of 2,091 spectators was recorded. Photograph: AAP

At Gold Coast’s very own Sporting Hall of Fame, there have been 49 athletes inducted since the first – motorcyclist Mick Doohan, in 1999. Eight are swimmers, six are surfers and three are triathletes. There is not one AFL player.

The absence is no surprise, given the difficulties the urban corridor known more for surfing and schoolies has had within Australia’s elite professional competitions. Before the Suns, the Brisbane Bears briefly played games at Carrara for six years before they moved to the Gabba, but in that time never made finals.

In basketball, the NBL’s Gold Coast Cougars became the Rollers after two seasons in the 1990s, and were extinct after another five. A decade later, the Blaze flamed out after five of their own. The A-League’s Gold Coast United lasted just three, ending in another Clive Palmer bin fire.

In rugby league, the struggles of the Titans – likely wooden spooners in 2025 – are hard to ignore, even if the club were brief top four contenders 15 years ago and have been one of the NRLW’s better performers in recent years. Before that, few forget the tragicomedy of the Chargers in the 1990s, and before them the Seagulls featuring a fading Wally Lewis.

“I remember seeing The King’s long wheelbase maroon Mercedes Benz – Wally Lewis’s car – parked in the carpark as you walked in to watch the games,” says the chair of the Hall of Fame and junior state cricketer Jeff Pfaff. “His number plate was QLD-06 or something like that.”

The Gold Coast resident of 53 years agrees it has been “tough” for the region’s professional teams, but argues his hometown is the “centre of the universe” in some sports, such as surfing, surf lifesaving and swimming. One-off events have also been a success, Pfaff argues, citing the popular Gold Coast marathon which attracted more than 50,000 to the region this year. The region also hosted the Commonwealth Games in 2018, and eight local venues will be used in the 2032 Olympics.

The Titans NRLW team has been relatively successful. Photograph: Bradley Kanaris/Getty Images

“I’m not sure it’s a graveyard, but they’ve had some things that haven’t worked as well as they would like in the past. But I think with the right product and always the right outcomes and stuff like that, the Coast will get behind it,” he says.

Working with the region’s next generation every day, Mackay believes that now the fundamentals are in place for Gold Coast to make its sporting mark. “It’s hard at that level, and we just haven’t quite got the recipe right, but now history is going to be a bit more on our side,” he says. “You’ve now got the population base to get the crowds and get the financial aspect of those franchises right.”

Attendances at Suns matches have averaged close to 17,000 this season, and there was another strong crowd on Wednesday night to see the historic thumping of the Bombers. Afterwards, Suns coach Damien Hardwick said he has noticed more fans get behind his team as a final became more likely, even if his players did get a bit “tight” in fumbling two opportunities to secure their place in the past two weeks.

“We are young and emerging if that makes sense, but we’re also young and emerging as a footy club,” he said. “I noticed that, walking around Burleigh, all of a sudden there’s a lot of Suns colours that are jumping up.”

Mackay says it’s significant the team has “created history” this week, but it’s just one step along the path towards winning a flag, and other things might be slower to change. “It’s 27C, blue sky up here today. You’ve got the beach, or you can go to the footy,” Mackay says. “Well, you might find more now pick the footy.”

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