Gold Coast SUNS recruiting chief Scott Clayton catches up with goldcoastfc.com.au to talk through the GC SUNS newest recruits.
Aaron Hall
“When a spot opened up on our primary list we went for an exciting young talent, 21-year-old from Hobart, versatile, forward, midfield, very quick, got some power, he kicks goals and a really strong mark for his size. He's been a late developer in terms of his growth. He was quite small as a 17-year-old but had a big growth spurt in recent years. When we got through the national draft we were very keen to get him which we did. “
Rookie strategy
We had a very solid and methodical plan and we stuck to that. We were very well organised. Certainly we wanted some more mature guys in the rookie draft - that was our strategy. Time will tell whether they turn out to be great selections, we think they will be, but at this stage we're certainly happy with how it panned out.
Kyal Horsley
“We're very happy to get Kyal Horsley who had a standout season in Western Australia last year. He was very influential in Subiaco, having a great year, started in defence, moved into the midfield, very effective inside player and will certainly push for some games and be a great back-up for our younger guys.
I think more and more people are taking those sorts of guys on the rookie list. We're very pleased to get him.”
Andrew McQualter
“He's a great quality young man with vast AFL experience. He's been living on the Gold Coast and is settled here with his girlfriend and he was an obvious one to come on to our rookie list to give us some back-up and support for our young list.”
Michael Coad
“We were vey keen to continue on with Michael Coad who had a wretched run with injury but we certainly wanted him around our group.”
Josh Hall
“We were a bit more speculative with Josh. He's a young guy from Townsville out of our academy zone. He's a high jumper who hasn't played footy much. He was on an Australian Athletics scholarship for high jump and at one stage was training hard trying to quality for the London Olympics. He played in our NEAFL team during the year at Metricon Stadium as a curtain-raiser to an AFL game and got intoxicated with our game. There's obviously a lot of work to be done, but we're very pleased to get him.”
