Gold Coast have already had preliminary discussions with player agents about locking away their trio of top-six draft picks beyond their initial two-year terms.
Thursday nights opening round of the draft was a crucial night in the development of the hitherto underperforming expansion club as the Suns signed three potential stars of the future – South Australians Jack Lukosius (pick two) and Izak Rankine (pick three), as well as Victorian Ben King (pick six).
New Suns (from left) Ben King, Izak Rankine and Jack Lukosius. Already there is speculation about their future.Credit:AAP
Player retention has been an issue for Gold Coast, something the Suns have recognised by bolstering their football department in a bid to help draftees from interstate settle at the club.
Gold Coast did however secure all four of their top-10 picks from the 2016 draft (Ben Ainsworth, Jack Scrimshaw, Will Brodie and Jack Bowes) before the start of the 2017 season, with the quartet all re-committing to end of 2020. It hasnt quite gone to plan though, with Scrimshaw already leaving Gold Coast via a trade to Hawthorn last month.
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In recent times, most top-10 draft picks re-sign within nine months of being drafted, with a failure to recommit perceived to be a warning sign that the player could soon depart, in the manner of James Aish, Tom Boyd and Josh Schache, the last of whom re-signed with Brisbane in 2017 before being traded to the Western Bulldogs only months later.
Tall forward Lukosius and the lively Rankine are obvious targets for the South Australian clubs, with Port Adelaide list manager Jason Cripps controversially declaring last month that the Power would look to poach Lukosius and Rankine if the Suns drafted the pair, who went to school together in Adelaide.
No.2 AFL draft pick Jack Lukosius.Credit:AAP
Tall swingman King is arguably even more gettable given his identical twin Max was taken by St Kilda with pick four on Thursday night. The Saints cheekily tweeted about the prospect of Ben returning to Melbourne, raising eyebrows at the Suns, before St Kilda deleted the tweet.
Lukosius is managed by Ben Williams of Players Ink, Rankine by Adelaide-based Dimitris Parhas of W Sports & Media, and King by Robbie DOrazio of Connors Sports Management. DOrazio and business partner Paul Connors have managed around half of all players taken in the top-10 since 2016, with most of those, including all four of the 2016 Suns group, re-signing within a year of being drafted.
Gold Coast list manager Craig Cameron said the Suns would look to re-sign their top-six trio soon, although not before 2019.
“Some of the guys managers have spoken to us about doing that. But well just get them up there and get them settled, get the feel of the club, and then we can start turning our eye to that in the new year,” Cameron told The Age.
Having lost the likes of Gary Ablett, Tom Lynch, Steven May, Jaeger OMeara and Dion Prestia in recent years, Cameron said the club was working hard to build a strong culture.
“Weve got a lot of young guys at the footy club that are starting to take ownership of the team, drive leadership, drive standards,” Cameron said.
Steven May (left) and Tom Lynch both left the Suns.Credit:AAP
“Stuey [coach Stuart Dew] has obviously brought a new team in around him from a coaching perspective, and also in the personal excellence and player excellence area were probably going to expand to six or seven people in that area, so well have the most of any team in the AFL. We just think weve got a whole group, even starting back with the 2016 draft, that weve got a whole heap of good, young talented blokes coming through, so were pretty confident.”
The Suns also drafted South Australia Jez McLennan at pick 23 and Gold Coast academy product Caleb Graham late in the draft.
Former Gold Coast coach Rodney Eade last week called for base three-year contracts for draftees, however while Cameron said that would have benefits, he doubted the AFL Players Association would allow such a change without asking for something significant in return.
Daniel is an Age sports reporter.
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