Gold Coast Suns chairman Tony Cochrane continues to defend his club even after suffering a 108-point thrashing over the weekend.
Fans and pundits alike have written off the Suns and many claim it'll take many years until they are ready for finals contention. Cochrane is not one of those disbelievers however, he defended his club saying they will survive, and succeed in the AFL.
โAll the external criticism, all the brick backs, keep throwing all the s--t you like at us,โ he told SENโs Whateley on Tuesday.
โIโm telling ya, we are going to survive. We are going to be a success. We are going to be a long term, proud part, of the AFL body of people.
โThe reality is we have now got some very good people at our club. Finally. Itโs taken a while, but we have got some very good people.
โThe reality is we finally have a great TNA centre.
โWe have moved back into our ground where we have lots of challenges with the state government about their fees and everything, but we will eventually win those things.
โYou know why we have to win all those things? Because itโs important to our community.
โItโs really important to the Gold Coast community, who have had failure after failure in the sporting landscape, and thatโs got to change.
โWe are now a sophisticated city, 650,000 people and this has to work.
โIf it takes a handful of blokes to stand up and make it work, then thatโs what we got to do.โ
Cochrane understands things haven't gone perfectly since the club's inception in 2011, but with some extra draft picks and growing junior footy clubs in Queensland, the Suns' future looks bright.
โOn the Gold Coast, and in Queensland I might add, AFL is booming,โ he said.
โAt grassroots level, we only have one problem on the Gold Coast, that is we donโt simply have enough ovals.
โA lot of people making these comments on TV havenโt once come up, walked around our club, spoken to everybody, spent a day or two immersing themselves in what we are trying to do and then gone away and written the article or spoken on TV about our problems.
โThe reality is the 10,000 juniors playing AFL on the Gold Coast. Itโs impressive because 10 years ago, it wasnโt 800.
โWe are winning the AFL battle in the long term.โ
The Suns are currently 3-8 this season and are sitting in 15th position, ahead of a clash with the 16th placed Saints. on Saturday afternoon.
