Suns’ Lukosius bombs Cats to historic low in AFL win

Murray Wenzel | April 2, 2023

A long-range Jack Lukosius rocket has sunk premiers Geelong to historic depths and helped Gold Coast break a six-year losing streak against the Cats.

Geelong became the first team since North Melbourne in 1976 to lose the opening three games in their premiership defence, upset 10.13 (73) to 7.12 (54) at Heritage Bank Stadium on Sunday.

Lukosius kicked a career-high five goals in the low-scoring game where accuracy was optional, his fourth an incredible drop punt from beyond 60 metres late in the fourth quarter.

That gave the Suns a 13-point margin, his final act a curling effort from deep in the pocket to seal the result.

His day was a bright spot in an affair dominated earlier by dropped marks and inaccuracy, teammate Ben King spilling four first-half marks.

King battled through that to provide for his teammates, kick a crucial goal and take a late hanger. But even in-form Jeremy Cameron (three goals, three behinds) snapped a relatively simple shot out on the full.

It was the Suns’ first win of the season, while Chris Scott’s men are 0-3 after opening fortnight losses to Collingwood and Carlton.

No premier has started that poorly since the Kangaroos nearly 50 years ago, but in good news for Chris Scott they recovered to make the grand final and win another flag the following season.

Coincidentally, the Suns’ last win over the Cats came in 2017 when the Cats last experienced a three-game losing streak.

“I don’t want to be too rose-coloured glasses (but) I’m not looking at us thinking, ‘We are just horrific’,” the coach said.

“There’s very little chance we’ll overreact. But you also need to react.

“It’s not a matter of saying, ‘She’ll be right’. There are some parts of our game that are off and we need to fix them as fast as we can.”

Lachie Weller (29 disposals) was a standout for the hosts in his second game back from a knee reconstruction, zipping through the line to surge the Suns forward.

The Suns dominated the clearances and stoppages in a special win for foundation player David Swallow, who became the first to play 200 games for the club.

For the Cats, Tom Stewart had a game-high 30 touches after missing a week with a knee injury.

The Suns dominated the second quarter but let themselves down in front of goal, kicking just one as they managed seven behinds from shots 40m and beyond.

The Suns led by two points at halftime but soon trailed in the third when Cameron corrected his radar.

Defender Charlie Ballard showed the forwards how it was done, launching a bomb from outside 50m to kick just his second goal and first since his debut 90 games ago.

Another behind created a 12-point buffer but substitute Gary Rohan bucked the trend with a pure set shot from 50m to bring it back to one kick.

Enter Lukosius, his missile sparking wild scenes and reigniting the club’s quest for a maiden finals campaign.

“He puts the work in, Luko and does that regularly at training,” a hoarse Dew said.

“We missed some gettables and so did they – to show the resilience, be tested, I couldn’t be more proud and a lot of guys responded.”