Gold Coast star Jamie Stanton has celebrated her 50th AFLW game in magnificent fashion by kicking six goals in the Suns’ record-breaking 73-point win over West Coast at Carrara.
The Suns not only kicked their biggest score in the 15.9 (99) to 4.2 (26) hammering on Saturday, but also the third biggest in league history.
The final margin was also Gold Coast’s largest - comfortably surpassing their previous best of 34 points against Sydney last season.
In fact, by halftime, Gold Coast had already surpassed their previous best score of 7.7 (49) as they found themselves on 8.5 (53) and 51 points clear of West Coast, who had to wait until the seven-minute mark of the third term to kick their first goal.
Gold Coast coach Cameron Joyce said his team aimed to make their home ground a fortress this season.
“We all love coming out and playing here,” he said post-match.
“We want to make sure it’s really difficult for any team that comes here to play and be able to get a win.
“We had a good record last year here and we want to continue that and we started on the right foot today.”
Stanton had not kicked multiple goals in a game in any of her first 49 matches, yet after 12 minutes the former Lion and Kangaroo had three to her name in a flash.
She headed into the match with just eight career goals and emerged from it as just the fifth player in AFLW history to kick five goals or more in a match, falling one short of Brooke Lochland’s all-time record of seven majors.
Gold Coast kicked the first nine goals of the match, three of which were booted by Jacqueline Dupuy (19 disposals) who teamed up with Stanton and captain Tara Bohanna (four goals) to form an ominous attacking triumvirate.
But the forward line wasn’t the only area where the Suns dominated the Eagles, who were completely outplayed all over the park.
Gold Coast smashed West Coast in disposals (295-182), contested possessions (141-88), clearances (43-16) and inside 50s (52-18) to ensure the lopsided scoreline.
The chief instigators behind that obliteration were star midfielders Claudia Whitfort, who finished with 33 disposals (15 contested), six clearances and a goal, and Charlie Rowbottom who registered 33 touches (24 contested), 10 tackles and 16 clearances.
“The clearance count was out of control,” West Coast coach Michael Prior said.
“On the back of that they lived inside their forward half.
“They had winners all over the ground and in the last quarter we put a few of our midfielders to half-back so they can experience what it’s like - go down and play half-back when the ball’s coming in as easy and as often as it is.”
Compounding the result for West Coast was Eleanor Hartill suffering a concussion and spending majority of the second half on the bench.
The loss was the Eagles’ eighth in a row and the struggling club has now lost 31 of their 37 matches since entering the competition in 2020.
