With the 2025 Continental Tyres AFL Trade in full swing, the Gold Coast SUNS are working round the clock to bolster its 2026 list.

Gold Coast SUNS General Manager of Talent and Player Strategy Craig Cameron shared on Trade Radio this morning that the club’s record-breaking 2025 campaign was just the beginning. 

 

“We made finals this year but it's not the ultimate aim of this footy club, we need to look to ways to get better,” Cameron told hosts in the Early Trade segment.

 

“Footy teaches you lessons if you’re prepared to listen and observe - we need to get better and we need to bring a group of younger players through because of where we need to go.

 

 “We believe we can improve from inside the list with players like Leo Lombard and Jake Rogers and also some players we’re looking to bring in through this trade period.”

 

Cameron revealed the thoughtful preparation and strategy that has gone into the annual affair to develop the SUNS list with emerging talent.

"We planned a good twelve months in advance for what this academy group look like and obviously with some players moving out we’re confident we’ll have enough points,” Cameron said. 

 

"We did a lot of work last year to put selections into this first round. We traded in Jack Lukosius for a future first with Port Adelaide that set us up quite well for this draft, plus we have Collingwood’s first (pick) from dealings that we did with them last year. 

"We have a lot of picks at the moment but we expect some to move."

 

 

With three decades of experience under his belt, the interim General Manager of Football,  shared an insight into the evolving landscape of contracted players.

 

"As an industry we have to accept that the landscape has changed- and is still evolving- around players who are still contracted looking to change clubs,” Cameron took to air.

 

"But the flip side is, players and managers have to accept that they can ask the question but when players are contracted and the club says "no", that’s the answer.

 

"I think it’s a two-way street on this. If they want to explore, as much as we don’t like it, we’re going to have to accept it’s a new world. But once a club is definitive with its answer, that’s what has got to be accepted.”

 

The 2025 Continental Tyres AFL Trade Period continues until next Wednesday October 16.