Gold Coast bosses have bullishly defended the timing of Stuart Dew’s sacking and say they “haven’t given up” on the AFL membership’s season.
Dew was voted out of the Suns’ job on Monday evening, assistant coach Steven King taking on forward of Saturday’s recreation towards St Kilda on the Gold Coast.
The Suns’ 10 wins final yr was a membership finest, serving to Dew safe a two-year contract extension.
With key ahead Ben King match once more the messaging this yr was clear on their pursuit of a transparent goal was a maiden finals marketing campaign, 13 seasons after the Suns entered the league.
At 6-6 coming into the bye, because of buoyant victories over Adelaide and the Western Bulldogs in Darwin, that remained on the playing cards regardless of a long-term harm to captain Touk Miller.
But a horror loss to Carlton and resounding back-to-back defeats to prime sides Collingwood and Port Adelaide within the month that adopted pressured the board to take motion.
Two-time premiership participant Dew’s axing got here lower than per week after chief govt Mark Evans publicly backed the coach.
Evans rubbished stories Dew’s exit was imminent, feedback that naturally prompted criticism when the coach was given his marching orders on Tuesday.
It leaves the Suns needing six wins from the final seven video games to satisfy the 13-win threshold that may seemingly earn the crew a finals berth.
And whereas it sounds far-fetched, Gold Coast’s schedule and Miller’s well timed return does supply a glimmer of hope.
After Saturday’s conflict towards sixth-placed St Kilda, the Suns solely face one crew at present positioned higher than ninth on the ladder.
“We feel still think that we’ve got things to do this season,” Evans mentioned.
“So we’re not saying we give up on this season.
“We are saying as soon as we have recognized that Stuey wasn’t going to be the continued coach for us, one of the best factor to do with that was to cope with it instantly.
King brings his personal historical past of premiership success, first as a participant with Geelong after which as an assistant on the Bulldogs.
“The players will quickly swing behind that, because it’s important that we show the world that we care about what happens across the rest of this season and get as much success in that period as we can,” Evans mentioned.
Installed as chairman earlier this yr, long-time board member Bob East mentioned that “it did crystallise over the weeks and months that there were gaps”.
“I’m not about to run a commentary or public commentary on performance appraisal, but it was very clear that we needed to close the gap,” he mentioned.
“And as I said, eventually there is a decision to be made, and you need to be true to all stakeholders by executing on that decision.”
SUNS’ RUN HOME:
* Saints (sixth)
* Giants (tenth)
* Brisbane Lions (third)
* Crows (ninth)
* Swans (fifteenth)
* Blues (eleventh)
* Kangaroos (seventeenth).
Source: www.perthnow.com.au
