Key Player Insights and Team Strategy
Gold Coast vice-captain Sam Collins has expressed confidence in the potential of Jarrod Witts to play a crucial role in the club’s AFL finals campaign. Despite being overlooked for the recent clash against St Kilda, Collins believes that Witts’ experience as an elite ruckman will soon see him back on the field.
Witts was listed as “managed” when he was left out of the team for the Suns’ victory over GWS last week, with Ned Moyle stepping in. The 33-year-old has not managed to regain his spot this week, and he will be watching from the sidelines as the fifth-placed Gold Coast (5-3) hosts the Saints (4-4) in Darwin on Saturday night.
“He’d be hurting, no doubt about it,” Collins said.
“He’s an AFL-quality ruckman who’s not getting a game at the moment.
I’ve got full confidence that he’ll be playing AFL football again soon and when he does he won’t look out of place because we know the type of player and man he is.”
Moyle, who is 24 years old and has only played 14 AFL games so far, will receive ruck support from key defender Mac Andrew and forward Ethan Read. Their task is to counter St Kilda’s formidable duo of Tom De Koning and Rowan Marshall.
“Moyley’s been consistent for four or five years,” Collins said.
“It’s just the game – there’s kind of only one spot for a ruckman and we’re blessed to have two exceptional ruckmen.
Moyley had a great game last week against the Giants and hopefully he continues that for the rest of the season.”
Gold Coast has a strong record at Darwin’s TIO Stadium, where they have played two ‘home’ games in each of the past four seasons and won all eight matches. The Suns will host successive fixtures at the venue against St Kilda and Port Adelaide over the next week.
“The conditions are very similar to what we face all throughout our pre-season and I think our game style is really suited to it,” Collins said.
“Also, as a team and a club, we embrace being up here … we come here with a really positive mindset and we play good footy off the back of that.”
Both Gold Coast and St Kilda made just one change to their teams. The Suns named second-gamer Ben Jepson to replace Sam Clohesy (suspended), while St Kilda replaced Dan Butler (hamstring) with Darcy Wilson. Liam Ryan (corked hip) remains unavailable for the Saints.
Brownlow Medal winner Matt Rowell (ankle) is also unavailable for a second consecutive week.
St Kilda started the season slowly but have since picked up momentum, winning three of their last four games, including a one-point defeat to Adelaide. Collins acknowledged the Saints’ strength but remains confident in his team’s ability to neutralize their threats.
“They’re a good team who are playing good footy and their brand stacks up, but we think we can nullify their strengths,” Collins said.
“Last week we took a step forward in playing the type of footy that we want to play, so it’s going to be a good match-up for us.”
