The Gold Coast SUNS have fallen short 3.5 (23) to 5.3 (33) to Carlton in Saturday’s practice match at People First Stadium.

Pre-season draftee Lily Quigley (two goals, five score involvements) gave SUNS fans plenty to be excited about in the upcoming NAB AFLW season.

The SUNS pocket rocket lit up the scoreboard early in the first term and continued to impress all afternoon with her dash and run, providing plenty of opportunities for the SUNS. 

Havana Harris involved herself in plenty of the action. The 2025 Club Champion runner-up amassed a game-high 26-disposals to go with seven i50s.

While Carlton edged ahead in the following terms, plenty of SUNS played their part to keep the pill revolving in the SUNS forward half, including a desperate smother from Dekota Baron, tackles from Mia Salisbury (five)and Georja Davies (six) and 18 disposals from Sunny Lappin.

A goal from Ellie Veerhuis to kick off the final quarter gave Gold Coast a glimmer of hope. However, collectively unable to capitalise in front proved costly to the SUNS, ultimately falling to the Blues by just 10-points.

Clara Fitzpatrick was immense in defence. The 184-cm SUN tallied a game-high 10 marks to go with 9 intercept possessions alongside counterpart and vice-captain Meara Girvan.

Gold Coast SUNS AFLW Assistant Coach Sam Iles was pleased with the SUNS process-driven performance. 

“One of the biggest takeaways was that we got our processes right – a lot of the numbers were in our favour, unfortunately not the scoreboard,” Iles shared.

“There was a lot of growth, and it’ll be easy to find some (opportunities) for growth from that game.

“We’ll review today and hopefully we can work on those areas of growth leading into the Lions and the season.”

Gold Coast play its final pre-season hit-out next Sunday, 2 August against the Brisbane Lions as part of a double-header at People First Stadium. Cheer on the SUNS in the AFLW match simulation with tickets to the AFL Round 21 game.  

Goals 

Gold Coast: Quigley 2, Veerhuis

Carlton: Scholz 2, Whitfort, Hill , Fitzpatrick