‘Been given everything’: Nice guy’s ruthless sledge that ignited rivalry.. and how it’s exploded

Simon Black, the Brownlow Medallist with the silkiest of skills, stared down the barrel of the camera and dropped a venomous bombshell preceding the first Q-clash between Brisbane and freshly-minted Gold Coast Suns.

A cracking fella adored in Brisbane and admired across the AFL, the left-footed Lion was scarcely renowned for being a flame thrower.

But with the once mighty Lions pride diminished, and the newcomers down the Pacific Motorway poaching former teammates and Brisbane members, the champion unloaded.

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His former teammates Michael Rischitelli and Jared Brennan, who featured among a parade of footballers recruited to the Gold Coast in 2011 on significant money, were the targets of his ire after forsaking the Lions at a time of need to chase the pot of gold further south.

“At the end of the day, the mercenaries aren’t here anymore and good luck to them. The AFL has given them everything, and then some,” Black said ahead of the first “Pineapple Grapple” 14 years ago.

“They’ve been extremely fortunate the way they’ve come into the competition and they have been the benefactors of previous clubs coming into the competition and not having immediate success that other clubs have had, (for example), the Brisbane Bears.

“So they have been handed (things) on a platter, so no doubt in time … they are going to be a very good footy side but, gee, they’ve been given everything and then some.”

If the message was delivered with an intent — with the Lions yet to win a game and the Suns boasting just one win five games into the season, a hard sell was needed — it backfired for Brisbane in the first match of a rivalry that reaches its biggest moment in Saturday night’s semi-final at the Gabba.

Brennan played arguably the match of his life when gathering 30 disposals, one more than Rischitelli, with the pair even managing to outshine the little champ Gary Ablett Jnr in his first season as the Suns skipper as the Gold Coast clinched a thrilling eight point win.

A new rivalry was born. But throughout the decade to come, it frustratingly proved more frequently a fizzer rather than a firecracker.

As former Courier-Mail footy writer Andrew Hamilton told foxsports.com.au, reality hit hard up north early in the rivalry and it has taken far longer than a decade for Black’s prediction that the Suns would become a power to come true.

Brisbane was the top gun in the infancy of the century winning three premierships but it was not until Chris Fagan’s arrival that he was able to turn the Lions back into a flag force.

And the Suns spluttered along, promising much without delivering until Damien Hardwick’s arrival after his successful stint at the helm at Richmond.

There has always been antipathy between the clubs, but the lack of success meant that cynical types took to labelling Q-clashes the ‘who cares Cup?’ midway through last decade, with the matches buried in dead-end time slots far from the spotlight.

“Queensland footy was in the doldrums at the time and it was a bit of a flop, because both teams spent almost a decade in the wilderness until Chris Fagan arrived at Brisbane,” Hamilton said.

But it is far from a flop now that the Suns are firing and the Lions are the reigning premiers, as Saturday night’s semifinal shows.

‘THERE’S NOT A LOT OF LOVE LOST’

Western Australia has its derby, a fierce rivalry between the Eagles and Dockers that has spilled over into violence at times, most notably the infamous “Demolition Derby” in 2000.

Showdowns between the Crows and Port Adelaide have also been notorious for their spite, with the enmity stretching to a brawl in a carpark of the Ramsgate Hotel back in 2002.

The Battle of the Bridge also has its spice, with Toby Greene’s crack at Tom Papley about his weight in the most recent clash between the Swans and Giants an example of the animosity.

Despite the Suns’ struggles and the Lions’ lacklustre deeds for a decade, there has been some ugly moments, with the running battles between Dayne Zorko and Touk Miller an example.

“We’re not going for a beer after the game. The days of us going head to head have probably gone a little bit, but I did enjoy the rivalry that was there,” Miller told Footy Classified this week.

But former Gold Coast chairman Tony Cochrane loves the niggle that exists between the two Queensland club’s and told Fox Footy’s AFL 360 co-host Gerard Whateley this week the blossoming rivalry carries similarities to other derbies.

The former V8 Supercars executive director promoted some of the biggest artists on the planet when touring Australia and knows the importance of selling a story, with scandal a crucial ingredient.

“I kind of like that and I must admit I threw my fair share of exploded bombs into that discussion over the years when I was president. I like that crosstown rivalry. I think it really builds the game and builds support and builds interest,” Cochrane told SEN 1116.

“You’ve only got to look at the massive success between the Adelaide Crows and the Power. I mean, they absolutely can’t stand each other. They almost can’t break bread in the same room. The same is true, obviously, over in the west. You only had to witness what happened at the Eagles presentation night the other night when the result (that the Suns had beaten Fremantle) came through.

“I don’t have a problem with any of that. I just see that as the cut and thrust of (footy). Know your enemy, and also, you know, have a bit of grief for your enemy. I think that adds to the spice … from a media point of view.

“I think that’s kind of a funny, healthy aspect of our game. It seems true in Sydney between the Swans and obviously the Giants as well. There’s not a lot of love lost there. And it goes on and on and on with Victorian clubs that have had long standing blues and long may it continue.”

Hamilton, the ex-journo, broke the news about the sacking of Guy McKenna in 2014 and believes the Lions’ 54-point smashing of the Suns in a Q-clash late that season was the beginning of the end for the Gold Coast’s inaugural coach.

“Pearce Hanley tore them apart and it was pretty brutal in the rooms after that game,” he said.

“There were a couple of senior players who did not like what they were hearing and that is where I first started to get rumblings about his future.”

As to that rivalry? During the COVID-19 impacted seasons in 2020 and 2021, Hamilton was on charter flights while serving as Brisbane’s communications supremo when the Lions shared their travel arrangements with rival teams.

He recalls the chatter with other opponents including Carlton being quite friendly, with the players chatting away on the plane.

But when the Suns and Lions were on board, there was stony silence, a situation not helped by the Gold Coast’s late arrival to a private airport the AFL was using for flights south.

Zorko, whose dad and uncle were highly successful builders on the Gold Coast, has good reason to feel slighted by the Suns after being overlooked in four consecutive drafts.

He shaped as a prime example as a local boy who should have been given a chance given his excellence with Broadbeach, a QAFL club he won four best and fairest awards with.

Instead it was in Brisbane where he has excelled, becoming an All Australian, club captain and premiership player who is on track to break the club’s games record currently held by Black next season.

Jarryd Lyons also excelled when given a chance in Brisbane after being surprisingly delisted with a year left on his contract at the Gold Coast, particularly when clashing with the Suns.

“Lyons came up to Brisbane with a chip on his shoulder about that and Dayne Zorko definitely had a legitimate gripe. He always had a point to prove against those guys,” Hamilton said.

There have been some big blow ups, none more explosive than when former Suns captain Steven May, now with Melbourne, brutally flattened Brisbane ruckman Stef Martin in 2016.

Back in 2018, Fagan was forced to rebuke Nick Robertson after the Lion, when noting the two clubs could not stand each other, branded the Suns “soft” prior to a clash.

“I was not too happy at all. It does not reflect our view of the Gold Coast Suns. It’s more Nick’s feeling, I guess, towards them,” Fagan said.

The most recent stoush of significance occurred in a pre-season clash on the Gold Coast, with Suns forward Ben Long flattening prized Lions father-son recruit Levi Ashcroft, while teenager Levi Lombard later dislocated his shoulder when targeting the same rival.

WHY THE GOLDIE IS NO LONGER A GRAVEYARD

Prior to the first Q-clash this season, billed as the biggest in its history at the time, Suns chief executive Mark Evans said there was “a genuine on-field rivalry” between the two sides, while Brisbane president Andrew Wellington said both teams wanted bragging rights.

“I think it is really interesting because I think the level of intensity around the rivalry has actually been more advanced amongst the players than it has amongst the fans in recent times,” Wellington told foxsports.com.au.

“I think there is a healthy respect between the clubs, so I don’t buy into the premise that one group of players hates the other. But the reality is they both desperately want bragging rights.

“I think when you watch the last few Q clashes, it’s been pretty obvious from the intensity and the efforts on field that the rivalry is real between the players, and that has been there for a while.

“But I think it is just starting to develop now amongst the fans, and certainly the fact that the Suns this year are doing well enhances that.”

What is not in doubt is that Australian rules is booming in the south-east of Queensland and the two clubs have worked together to boost the strength of the code across the state.

Brisbane has a club record 75,000 members. The Suns announced a 15 per cent increase when lodging more than 30,000 members for the first time. The semi-final is a sell-out. It shapes as the biggest Saturday night in Brisbane since the 2020 grand final.

Participation rates have surpassed Western Australia and the code cannot source enough ovals to satisfy demand on the Gold Coast, with the success they are now enjoying certain to further the interest.

While rival codes have been eyebrows about the numbers, Hamilton said the growth is legitimate, pointing out that the Gold Coast has always been a strong footy region.

Now working on the Gold Coast, he notes its growth of Australian rules in the education system in Queensland has also been pivotal, with top-line former footballers taking on specialist roles at schools.

And Cochrane said it is time to “lose the southern commentary that the Gold Coast is a graveyard” for the AFL, with the Suns finals appearance “the icing on the cake”.

“Some of my NRL friends won’t appreciate the honesty of commentary here, but the Suns’ rise has coincided pretty much with the failure the Titans have had year after year,” he told Whateley.

“They’re a club in some form of crisis (and) the truth of the matter is the people that talk about the Gold Coast as being an NRL heartland are living 15 years in the past. It’s gone. It’s gone by them now. And … the Suns are just going to go from strength to strength.”

SUNS CHANGE TACK AHEAD OF THEIR BIGGEST EVER MATCH

Ablett was back on the Gold Coast this week and said the Suns, after their heroics against Fremantle in last Saturday’s elimination final, are capable of pulling off a September miracle.

“I think they are good enough to win the premiership, without a doubt,” he said.

“They have experienced finals football now and I believe they have the list that can win a premiership. It’s going to be hard — they have to play at their best to beat teams like the Lions and Cats — but they can do it.”

Brisbane won the initial grapple this year by 17 points to extend their winning streak over the Suns, which have not beaten the Lions at the Gabba since 2018, to seven when playing at home.

But the Gold Coast bounced back with a vengeance at home in late July when victorious by 66 points. It prompted chairman Bob East to suggest this week the younger brother is now capable of matching the muscle of its Queensland sibling.

“Let’s not pretend that there is anything other than a really fierce rivalry there,” he told the Herald Sun.

“Maybe the younger sibling has grown up enough such that they can better the older sibling. We don’t think they are easy beats. They have had more success than we have had. We respect them but we have got a job to do in beating them.”

Hardwick knows a thing or two about winning premierships. One of those successes was at the Gabba back in 2020. But he is also aware the Suns have won only three of the 16 games at the Gabba and is opting for a change in tack this week.

The Suns will head up the Pacific Motorway on Friday and stay the night in Brisbane to “take that stress away” in terms of traffic and “get away together as a group”.

“It’s a good one for the players to get up there, relax, and that way their sole focus can be on the game,” he said.

“Our record up there hasn’t been the best so we’re going to try something we think will bring the group together and hopefully end in a reasonable result.”

“We’ve ticked off a number of things this year we hadn’t done previously that we’ve looked forward to the challenge of doing so.

“There’s no greater challenge than winning at away venues and the Gabba is one of those. It’s been a formidable fortress … against the Gold Coast Suns.”

The Lions will be without Brownlow Medallist Lachie Neale, but premiership midfielder Josh Dunkley believes they will rise to the occasion.

“Ever since I moved up here to Brisbane, I’ve always thought whether or not it was a rivalry, and it certainly is because ... we play some ripping games against each other,” he said.

“Whether it’s a final or whether it’s a home and away game, I see it as the same thing. It’s just another great opportunity – two clubs going at it, and then the winner obviously plays in a prelim next week against the Pies — we know it’s going to be a cracking contest.”

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