EVERY club wants to be a destination club. A place where the culture is admired, success is achieved, and life away from football is attractive.
For years, it's been Geelong that has regularly attracted star players down the highway with their highly regarded culture, the promise of finals footy and a laidback lifestyle where country meets beach.
Now, a new contender has emerged to challenge the Cats, almost 1800km to the north.
As Gold Coast's on and off-field fortunes continue to improve, the club is increasingly attracting high-calibre players and administrators. And in a sign of things to come, Gold Coast has an embarrassment of riches coming through both its men's and women's Academy programs.
It raises the question – are the once-unfashionable Suns now one of the AFL's most desirable destinations?
Lifestyle has never been an issue for players on the Gold Coast, but the other elements that once were lacking are finally coming together. The culture is building, and last year the club finally made – and won – an AFL final.
Suns players are making the most of living in one of Australia's most idyllic locations.
Turn on the TV and you'll see Daniel Rioli hosting his own fishing segment on the Gold Coast's Channel Seven news.
On social media, football's favourite chef Christian Petracca is posting recipes from his sun-soaked front yard, surrounded by palm trees and water.
The Suns' new women's football boss Erin Phillips said the lifestyle was a significant factor in her decision to join the club after two years at the AFL and working in the media, following her AFLW retirement in 2023.
"We just heard so many great things about living up in Queensland, just the environment to raise kids here," Phillips said in her first interview in her new role.
"You know, it was a little bit daunting figuring out how we are going to do this with four kids… but it's an adventure. It's a challenge for them as well and it's an opportunity to live in an incredible state."
Following Phillips' signing at the Suns, it didn't take long for her Adelaide premiership teammate Anne Hatchard to join her up north.
"I think the lifestyle up here is something we're really, really looking forward to," Hatchard said.
"Every time I've played here, I'm like, 'wow, this weather is just beautiful'.
"I love the early-morning wake-ups, early bed. We kind of do that in Adelaide and we kind of don't fit in with everyone.
"So it'd be nice to kind of fit in with everyone."
Petracca, the four-time All-Australian and 2021 Norm Smith medallist who joined the Suns from Melbourne ahead of this season, expresses a similar sentiment.
"Obviously being a professional athlete, it suits that lifestyle of being up early, (and) in bed early," he said.
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"I'm off my phone a lot more, I'm outside, I'm fishing, I'm crabbing, which has been really good.
"I feel like I'm a lot more present. I find that obviously being at the beach more and being under the sun is quite nice, so it's been really good."
Not only are the Suns attracting talent, they're producing it.
Gold Coast's Academy is one of the most successful in the competition, generating five of the club's six picks in the 2025 Telstra AFL Draft alone.
Highly rated midfielders Zeke Uwland and Dylan Patterson went to the Suns with picks No.2 and 5, while Jai Murray (pick No.17), Beau Addinsall (pick No.18) and Koby Coulson (pick No.46) are all homegrown products.
The Suns' AFLW Academy harvest was even more striking.
In 2025, the club had one of the greatest draft hauls in the competition's history, picking up eight Academy players.
Gold Coast had six first-round picks – Sunny Lappin (pick No.4), Ava Usher (No.7), Georja Davies (No.9), Alannah Welsh (No.12), Mikayla Nurse (No.13) and Dekota Baron (No.15) – all of whom were part of the club's Academy. Bronte Parker (pick No.32) and Rhianna Ingram (No.44) rounded out the eight Academy selections.
Father-daughter Lappin, daughter of ex-Carlton and St Kilda forward Matthew, nominated the Suns as her preferred club despite interest from rivals.
The talent at a local level has been the result of exponential growth in community footy. Queensland leads the nation with 13 per cent growth, women and girls make up 32 per cent of participation in that state, while NAB AFL Auskick has grown by 117 per cent.
It is impossible to pinpoint the club's new-found on-field success to one moment, decision, or person.
The drafting of best friends Noah Anderson and Matt Rowell with pick No.1 and pick No.2 in the 2019 draft has paid off. Anderson is now the club's captain and Rowell won the 2025 Brownlow Medal.
Former AFL football boss Mark Evans has provided experience and a steady hand as the club's CEO, and it was his mid-season trip in 2023 to the Cinque Terre on the Italian coast that secured the signature of three-time premiership coach Damien Hardwick, who was fresh from his own resignation from Richmond.
The combination of all of the above is evidence that the Suns are getting more of the big calls right, more often.
Hardwick's arrival has been the catalyst for the Suns' leap into the competition's on-field pace-setters.
In just two seasons at the helm, Hardwick is already the most successful coach in Gold Coast's short history, with a winning percentage of 56.52 per cent, 26 per cent more than the second-ranked Stuart Dew (30.17 per cent).
In Hardwick's 46 games leading the Suns, he has won 26 matches – more than inaugural coach Guy McKenna (24) had in four years, and Rodney Eade (16) had in three years.
Hardwick is just 10 wins away from equalling long-time coach Dew's total of 36 wins, collected over six seasons. If the Suns' form from 2025 holds up, Hardwick is a near certainty to pass Dew's tally this season.
There's no doubt the 53-year-old's arrival has had a domino effect at the club. The former Tigers boss has brought with him aura, leadership, knowledge and, just as importantly, players.
Hardwick has not only developed the talented players on the Suns list to reach their potential – but he has also attracted stars to the club.
At the end of 2024, he recognised the Suns' need for speed off half-back and lured premiership Tiger and former pupil Daniel Rioli, and the Magpies' John Noble to fill those roles. .
In his second opportunity to transform the club's playing list, Hardwick was instrumental in former Demon Petracca choosing the Suns ahead of the Crows.
When asked why he picked Gold Coast, Petracca said: "I think for me, 'Dimma' Hardwick was really impressive."
Hardwick and the club also backed themselves to rekindle the career of former No.1 pick Jamarra Ugle-Hagan, who was traded to the Suns by the Western Bulldogs for the meagre return of pick No.74, following a troubled 12 months in which he failed to play a single game.
Coming towards the end of their first pre-season these two stars look reinvigorated and capable of producing their best in their new colours.
Hardwick was unapologetic about the club's search for talent, telling AFL.com.au: "We want to keep our players and, more importantly, we want to rip out the very best from opposition clubs to come and play at our joint."
As the Suns' men target improvement on last year's semi-final exit, the club's AFLW program is heading into a new era of its own under former North Melbourne AFL coach Rhyce Shaw.
Shaw is admired by the playing group, particularly among the Gold Coast Academy players, for whom he was previously director of coaching.
Sunny Lappin said Shaw was one of the key reasons she wanted to be drafted to the Suns despite interest from other clubs.
"I also had Rhyce Shaw as a coach in the Academy and I think that he's building something special at the Gold Coast Suns and that's something I'd really love to be a part of," she said.
Success hasn't flowed through on the field yet in Gold Coast's AFLW program – the club finished 18th last season with just two wins – but the influx of talent via the bumper crop of Academy draftees suggests Suns supporters won't have long to wait.
Phillips, one of the game's greatest AFLW players, is leading the way; new recruit Hatchard is driving premiership standards and bringing 10 seasons of experience; and some of the best youngster in the country are ready to make their impact on the competition.
After 15 years of toil, false starts and a renewed focus on getting the big decisions right, Suns HQ is an exciting place to be. It's no wonder people want to call the Gold Coast home.
