Toast Welcome to the Suns, Lachie Gulbin

[Jen2310]

Burleigh Bombers junior Gulbin joins the club following an impressive 2024 campaign in which he played four Coates Talent League matches for the SUNS Academy alongside 10 matches in the club’s VFL side.


The 17-year-old, who turns 18 on Sunday, also won a senior QAFL Premiership with Burleigh in 2023.


Known for his combativeness and tackle pressure, Gulbin joins a growing list of home-grown products on the SUNS list for 2025.


“It’s a wonderful achievement for Lachlan who has thoroughly earned this opportunity,” StreetSmarts GC SUNS Academy Manager Kath Newman said.


“It’s also a proud moment for everyone who has played a part in his journey to see another member of our Academy graduate on to the club’s AFL list.”

Suns add three more players in rookie draft

The Gold Coast SUNS have added three more young talents to its list following Friday’s 2024 Telstra AFL Rookie Draft.

www.goldcoastfc.com.au

 

[GC2015]

The 17-year-old, who turns 18 on Sunday, also won a senior QFA Premiership with Burleigh in 2023.

As was the case with Jed Walter, Ethan Read and Will Graham growing up playing junior footy together at PBC, Gulbin also grew up playing junior footy at Burleigh with Leo Lombard, Zeke Uwland and Beau Addinsall. In fact, Zeke Uwland was BOG in that 2023 QFA Senior Premiership that Gulbin competed in. Lombard, Uwland and Gulbin were all named in our academy leadership team this year so these guys not only have high levels of cohesion from their Burleigh days, but they also have leadership qualities.

2024 GC U18 Academy Leadership Team (Gulbin third from the right)

Having guys who have already played together for 5+ years in the juniors is really going to hold us in good sted going forward. It's like the highly successful Penrith Panthers team we're seeing right now who have had guys like Nathan Cleary and Jarome Luai playing together since their junior academy days at 14 years of age. Team cohesion is such an underrated stat in professional sports and it often plays a huge factor in who wins.

As for Gulbin specifically, he played 10 VFL games for us this year so obviously our recruiters have seen something in him that's worth trialing. Good size at 187cm and there isn't much about him online, but I did find this - "A great leader who was in the leadership group, Gublin had become accustomed to a high forward role. He has great power, speed, tackling and hits the scoreboard." Dimma seems to love these quick players who will pressure the opposition with tackling, so Gulbin may well get a chance to play if he can show something in the VFL.

Side note - Burleigh is becoming such a powerhouse at the junior level that I would seriously consider removing a team like Surfers Paradise from the QAFL and replace them with Burleigh. That might seem a bit harsh on Surfers, but it's very obvious to anyone that has their finger on the pulse with junior GC footy that PBC, Broadbeach and Burleigh are streets ahead of clubs like Surfers and Labrador and a lot of the good players from Broady + PBC are actually Burleigh juniors. It's a real shame that a player like Leo Lombard was wearing a Broadbeach shirt on draft night this week when in reality he is very much a Burleigh Bombers junior and should be recognised that way.