Gold Coast V Hawthorn preview | Strategy 2026 with Brenton Sanderson (18.06.26)
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What recent challenges have Gold Coast and Hawthorn faced?
Well, at the end of the day, we lost to the reigning premiers two weeks ago. They've always been a side that we've struggled deeply across, and we understand that we've got to grow in that space. We lost to the runners-up on their home deck last week. We had a disappointing last quarter versus North Melbourne. So at the end of the day, we've got some challenges that we need to get better, and we understand that. But what we don't do is we don't sit there and throw the baby out with the bathwater. We've got some things in our game that are working incredibly well. We've got some other parts of our game that we've got to get better at. That's the nature of AFL sport. If it was easy, you know what?
Anyone would be doing it, but they're not. I don't think you play against any Damien Hardwick sides and think, oh, yeah, this will be an easy one. We'll just roll over here. So he's going to have them roll it up, and rightly so. But, you know, we lost our last game. We've got a lot to play for. Our form line, win-loss-wise, hasn't been great either. So this is a really important phase of the year. To be where we want to be come the later part of the season, we have to beat teams like the Suns, and this is a massive game for us.
This is a quite excellent backdrop to Friday night footy. Gold Coast and Hawthorne. Hawthorne have been walloped the last few times they've been to Gold Coast, which is a bit of a weird one as well. All right, let's dig into the Suns as a starting point. Home wins compared to away losses. What are you finding?
Yeah, well, we're probably covering old ground here, but it's just popped up again for me when I'm looking at the profile of the Suns because... Their 2026 home record is excellent. It's six and one. So they've only lost to Brisbane at home. Their wins are Geelong, West Coast, Essendon, Giants, St Kilda, Port Adelaide. So six and one at home, but on the road, they're much less effective. So they had the win against Richmond, but they've lost to Melbourne, Sydney, Hawthorne, North Melbourne and Geelong. So a one and five record away. It's really simple. When they play at home, they score and score big. So their offensive profile is 125, 131, 119, 83, 89, 98. So it's all up. Their offensive stuff is excellent when they play on the Gold Coast.
They score from turnover. They score from clearance. And their forward half intercepts are significantly increased as at home. So they can't score on the road. That's, I guess, the biggest challenge. They had a bit of a shootout with Melbourne. They lost 109 to 89 when they played Melbourne here at the MCG, but Sydney held them to 68 points away. Hawthorne held them to 63 and Geelong held them to 60. So it's pretty simple, Gerard. They're a really good scoring side when they play on the Gold Coast, but they have their challenges of scoring when they are away from home. Did the buy come at a good time for Hawthorne?
They've curiously only won two of their past six.
Yeah, so they've had the two wins a draw and the losses. So it has been a bit patchy. So two of the last six are patchy. I don't know. How did they review the Bulldogs game? They kick one goal 10 in the second half in a game they expected to win. I just think the mid-year assessment from Sam Mitchell over the break would have obviously been with a priority to be refreshed and energized to attack the second half of the year. And you mentioned it. This Suns game is a great challenge for them. to be on the road on Friday night. But I don't know, while it's really been, I think, a positive first half of the season for Hawthorne, there would be a few concerns for Sam Mitchell, particularly in the last six-week block.
So if I focus on that part of the season, the last six weeks, We've seen their offense drop to an average points per game of only 83 points. So that's below the AFL average.
How have Gold Coast's home and away performances differed in 2026?
The AFL average at the moment, or during that last six-week block, the AFL average is 87 points per game. So that correlates to them, their scoring inside 50 has dropped to 13th in the competition.
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