Noah Anderson barracked for Richmond as a kid. It was a strange choice, given that his dad was a two-time premiership player with Hawthorn. Noah was 11 when a rugby league player beat the Tigers with a kick after the siren. His dad Dean was on the Gold Coast this weekend. That day, he’d learnt that former teammate Paul Dear had died of pancreatic cancer. That night, he watched his son kick the most important goal in the history of the Gold Coast Suns.
It shouldn’t have got to that point. The Suns were 40 points down and playing as badly as they have this year – turning the ball over, missing tackles and allowing Shai Bolton to run riot. But they found their grunt, and the visitors got the staggers. As impressive and important a win as this was for the Suns, it was a game Richmond threw away. Spilt chest marks, set-shot sodas, open-goal squanders – it was a comedy of errors in the second half. It was the biggest lead a team has coughed up this year, and it will probably cost them the double chance. They’ve now left the Sydney, Geelong and Gold Coast games on the table.
