‘Nowhere to hide’ for AFL’s Lions, Suns

Queensland’s big wet means there will be nowhere to hide for the state’s two winless AFL teams on Saturday.

The Gold Coast Suns and Brisbane Lions face off in the ninth edition of the QClash at Metricon Stadium – a match that, if anything, has been made significantly more appealing by south-east Queensland’s recent downpour.

What loomed as a slapstick meeting between arguably the AFL’s two biggest disappointments should now serve as a true measurement of their desire.

Up to 200mm of rain is expected to pelt the region prior to the first bounce – and while conditions should ease from then on, Suns coach Rodney Eade anticipates a “game of attrition”.

“It probably changes the way you play a little bit,” he said.

“It becomes a real grind as a game, and obviously both teams are desperate for a win, so you imagine it’d be that sort of game anyway even if it’s dry.

“The weather just adds another element to that.

“There’s going to be more contests and (the game will be) played between the ears.

“There isn’t anywhere to hide so it sharpens the focus on it.”

Eade’s counterpart, Lions coach Justin Leppitsch, described wet weather football as the “purest” form of the game earlier in the week.

It comes almost as a blessing in disguise for two sides that, while decimated by injury, have still badly let down their supporters over the first month of the season.

Eade said he has never coached a side with as much inexperience as the one named by the Suns, which features two debutants in Henry Schade and Josh Glenn.

“(But) even if you’re 17 or 31, you’ve got control over the way you go about a contest,” he said.

“You mightn’t play well and you might make mistakes, which inexperience can do.

“But it’s about the way you apply yourself.

“I think the name of the team is irrelevant this week, it’s the way we go about it.”

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