The Gold Coast SUNS have fallen to the Syndey Swan’s in Saturday VFL curtain raiser at People First Stadium.

In what was a thrilling first-quarter, plenty of SUNS contributed to the scoreboard including Caleb Lewis (four goals) who kicked two of the SUNS three successive majors to close in on the Swans.

Tall SUNS Jarrod Witts (49 hitouts), Elliott Himmelberg and Jamarra Ugle-Hagan fired back-to-back majors to keep the games at arm’s length heading into the main change.

On return from Action StreetSmarts SUNS Academy product Koby Coulson (25 disposals) made an impact with a total of seven score involvements alongside Zak Evans with six score involvements and 29 disposals).

SUNS skipper Alex Sexton was a man on a mission all day, tallying a game-high 37 disposals to go with 10 contested marks.

Despite earning forward territory early in the third term, the SUNS couldn’t quite capitalise, leaving the Swans to charge ahead into the final break with a five-goal lead.

Late efforts from Lewis and Ryan Gilmore weren’t enough to close the gap, with Gold Coast ultimately going down 18.12 (120) to 12.8 (80).

The SUNS next face the Tasmania Devils in Hobart on Saturday, 11 July. Catch all the action live and free across AFL.com.au and the AFL Live Official App.

Goals:

Gold Coast: Lewis 4, Witts, Ugle-Hagan, Snowball, Kaesler, Himmelberg, Greenwood, Gilmore, Cilmi

Sydney: Phillipou 3, Longmire 3, Dattoli 3, Sutton 2, Harbour 2, Gibbs 2, Peters 1, Harrison 1, Cootee 1