Suns Do Everything Right, Finish Fourth by 0.2 Per Cent Wrong
Sometimes footy gives you a result so cruel you have to read it twice to make sure you’re not misunderstanding the ladder. The Gold Coast Suns did the one thing in their control on the weekend — they beat GWS, full stop, job done — and it still wasn’t enough. They miss the AFLW top four by a wafer-thin 0.2 per cent. Point two. That’s basically nothing.
As a Lions fan I’m obviously not crying into my cereal over a rival Queensland side missing finals footy, but genuinely, this one stings to watch from the outside. You want to see the game grow up here, you want two strong Queensland clubs pushing deep into September — sorry, into the AFLW finals period, old habits — and instead we get a percentage margin so tiny it’s basically a rounding error deciding someone’s whole season.
The Win That Wasn’t Enough
Let’s give credit where it’s due first, because the Suns’ performance against the Giants was legit good footy. They did what finals-calibre teams are supposed to do against a team playing out the string — control the contest, make GWS work for everything, and get the four points on the board without any late-game dramas. No notes on the actual performance.
The problem is footy doesn’t hand out finals spots for
