In what was a high scoring Saturday morning VFL game the Gold Coast SUNS went down 19.9 (123) to 16.21 (117) against Essendon at People First Stadium.

The first term saw the visiting Essendon score back-to-back majors in the first six minutes of play and continue their strong offensive efforts for the remainder of the quarter to finish 35 points ahead of the SUNS.

Whilst the Gold Coast struggled to find some composure throughout the first term which was costly, Jamarra-Ugle Hagan and Cooper Bell both put six points on the board in the opening quarter to keep the SUNS in touch.

Ugle-Hagan on his return from a clean-up knee operation bagged a further three majors in the second term eventually finishing with five. Along with a host of other goal scorers including Jai Murray (seven i50s, six tackles, seven total clearances) in his first game of the season, working to close the point deficit to just 11 points at half time.

The Gold Coast’s strong six goal to three second term resulted from dominance in the clearance work out of the middle, as well as smarter ball movement and decision making, with the experience of captain Alex Sexton (29 disposals, 11 marks) on show with his composure around the ball.

“After the first quarter we knew we had to own the ball a little bit more and play our system to get ourselves back in the game and that’s what we did,” VFL Head Coach and Head of Development Tate Kaesler said.

A dominant third term by Essendon, with the team’s ability to move the ball coast to coast, had the SUNS down by 40 points going into the fourth quarter, with Bell being the sole Gold Coast goal scorer of the term.

“We definitely let ourselves down a bit in the third quarter,” Kaesler commented.

“I thought we were doing some really good things but it was typically our last passage of play or our last connection piece that hurt us, so that’ll be something we go back and review.”

With the SUNS down 40 heading into the final term the side were in need of the back-to-back goals which were kicked by Asher Eastham (two goals, eight marks) and Ugle-Hagan in the quarters opening minutes to put them back in the fight.

Strong efforts from the Gold Coast side kept the Bombers pointless for the first 15 minutes of the final term and a further four SUNS bagged goals of their own contributing to a massive seven goal term which ultimately fell six points short despite a goal from Max Knobel on the full-time siren.

StreetSmarts SUNS Academy product Lachie Gulbin, ruck Ned Moyle (two goals, 33 hitouts, 14 contested possessions) and midfielder Nick Holman (five i50s, 13 contested possessions, six total clearances) were influential across the field.

“It was a great fight in the end to come back, but there's patches in the game that we sort of let get undone and that's what cost us in the long run,” Kaesler said.

“Our ability to work under the pump again will be something we’ll address across the week and keep working on.”

Goals

Gold Coast: Ugle-Hagan 5, Moyle 2, Eastham 2, Bell 2, Murray, Knobel, Evans, Coulson, Collins

Essendon: Unwin 3, Nguyen 3, McMahon 3, Cox 3, O’Neill 2, Eckersely 2, Perkins, Binns, Bella