GOLD Coast will need to create all sorts of history if it is to upset Geelong at GMHBA Stadium on Saturday.
Not only have the Suns never won at the Cats' home, but not a single player on their list – or coach Damien Hardwick – has had success at the ground at AFL level.
It's hard to believe, but it's true.
Gold Coast is 0-8 at the venue since coming into the competition in 2011, with three of those losses exceeding 100 points.
Seven of those losses came against Geelong, with the eighth a 68-point belting from Essendon in 2021 with the match moved due to COVID-19.
Gold Coast's average losing margin has been 72 points.
But the futility extends far beyond the club, with Hardwick, Daniel Rioli and Ben Long all without a win there at their previous clubs.
Even unavailable trio Lachie Weller, Elliott Himmelberg and Tom Berry have all played senior matches there without success.
Hardwick played in Geelong once as a player, in 2003 for Port Adelaide, suffering the ultimate heartbreak when Ben Graham kicked a 60m goal inside the final minute to snatch a one-point win.
Coaching Richmond, he would fail all three trips to the ground, losing in 2010, 2012 and 2017.
Similarly, Long is 0-3 and Rioli 0-2 (having lost in 2017 under Hardwick and then 2023 less than a fortnight after the coach left Richmond).
Weller with Fremantle and Berry with Brisbane have come as close as any Suns-listed player to success.
In 2017 the Dockers had a healthy lead at three-quarter time, but lost by two points when Michael Walters missed a hurried kick from 20m in front on the siren.
Likewise for Berry's Lions in 2021, with Zac Bailey denied a chance to win when he jarred the ball free from Mark Blicavs in the final seconds adjacent to goal in a decision the AFL conceded the following day it got wrong.
With their 8-3 record, this is the best chance yet the Suns have had to win at the Cattery. Will they create history or have to wait another year?
