2009 season | |||
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Coach | Guy McKenna | ||
Captain(s) | Marc Lock | ||
Home ground | Carrara Stadium | ||
Best and fairest | Marc Lock [1] | ||
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The 2009 Gold Coast Football Club season was the club's inaugural season. It competed in the 2009 TAC Cup season beginning on 4 April 2009, just five days after the club was granted a provisional licence to enter the Australian Football League (AFL) in 2011. [2]
Gold Coast did not yet have a nickname, and it was not until July 2010 that th club would be known as the "Suns". [3]
Gold Coast Football Club Ltd was registered with the Australian Securities and Investments Commission on 24 December 2007 by the Australian Football League. On 12 March 2008, the AFL received unanimous support from the existing 16 clubs for two expansion teams to enter the league. [4]
Collingwood assistant coach Guy McKenna was officially announced as GC17's inaugural head coach in August 2008. [5] On 5 September, the bid team announced the club would be known as the Gold Coast Football Club and would wear red, gold and blue. [6]
In October 2008, the GCFC bid team presented their submission to the AFL commission which included 42,000 committed supporters and the required 111 business partners. The AFL Commission revealed in November that the newly formed team would compete in the TAC Cup in 2009 and the Victorian Football League (VFL) in 2010, but had not yet been granted an AFL licence. [7]
On 31 March 2009, AFL Chief Executive Andrew Demetriou announced that the Gold Coast bid team had been granted a provisional licence to enter the AFL in 2011. [8] By this time, Gold Coast had already played two official practice matches. [9]
Gold Coast scheduled a practice match against the reigning QAFL premiers Southport Sharks in the buildup to their first game in the TAC Cup. [10] The Gold Coast would go down to the Sharks 6.3 (39) to 3.5 (23) at Carrara Stadium. [11] Marc Lock was named as the first captain of the club just days before their first round clash with the Eastern Ranges in the TAC Cup. [12] The club lost their first round clash with the Rangers by 38 points at Carrara Stadium.
The following week, the Gold Coast recorded their first ever victory during a 134-point annihilation of the Western Jets. [13] The team went on to record 10 wins in their following 15 matches. The results would see the Gold Coast finish fifth on the ladder and earn them a spot in the finals. A top of the table clash in the last round saw Gold Coast miss a crucial double chance for the finals with a loss to the Geelong Falcons. [14] Gold Coast would come out victorious in their elimination final against the Northern Knights, but their dream season came to an end the following week in a semi-final loss to the Geelong Falcons. [15]
During the season, on 29 July, Gold Coast announced the signing of professional rugby league footballer Karmichael Hunt. [16] The three-year contract would begin in May 2010 when Hunt completed his prior commitments to play Rugby Union in France. The local media was quick to label the signing a publicity stunt with most media outlets tipping Hunt to return to the NRL before his contract expired. [17] Hunt completed his last game for the Broncos in a preliminary final loss to the Melbourne Storm at Etihad Stadium. "It's a bit of a sad moment for me but I will still be playing football in the future, it will just be a different code." Hunt said after the game. [18] He then traveled to France to play Rugby Union for Biarritz Olympique in the Top 14 competition.
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Source: [19]
33 players were named on the Gold Coast list in 2009, with Marc Lock as the inaugural captain. [20]
B: | Hamish Watts | James Nelis | Daniel Ramage |
HB: | Jake Crawford | Matt Storey | Jesse Haberfield |
C: | Joseph Daye | Josh Thomas | Todd Grayson |
HF: | Taylor Rolfe | Matt Fowler | Luke Shreeve |
F: | Rory Thompson | Liam Rutledge | Alik Magin |
Foll: | Zac Smith | Marc Lock ( c) | Mitch Harley |
Int: | Declan Bevan | Brad Rees | Jack Stanlake |
Nick Price | Tyler Green | ||
Coach: | Guy McKenna [21] |