Almost an entire year separated his last game with the Brisbane Lions and his first with the Gold Coast SUNS, but Andrew Raines did what he has done best throughout his decade long career. He nullified the opposition’s most valuable player, reducing Patrick Dangerfield from his game-breaking best.
 
Whilst his first appearance in Rodney Eade’s evolving red and gold tapestry won’t appear on any highlights reels, Raines' first-up performance was crafted from effort. A theme that was present throughout Saturday night, despite an absence of class.
 
Raines was one of the SUNS' best contributors in the 41-point loss to Adelaide, following Dangerfield around Metricon Stadium like a caravan. He kept the Crows star to just 17 possessions and two clearances, whilst gathering 17 touches of his own. To put this into perspective, Dangerfield was coming off a 36-possession, 13 clearance effort in the Showdown.
 
“I’ve obviously been around for awhile, when I get back out there it’s not foreign to me. But at the same time, I haven’t been out there for a year, so just to get back out there and run out the game fairly well, I felt like I did that and contributed to the side,” Raines told SUNS RAW.
 
In the wake of another SUNS defeat, Rodney Eade couldn’t fault his side’s endeavour after the final siren. With an abundance of stars sitting in the stands due to injury or suspension, the Gold Coast line up was a shadow of its best.

Despite the loss, Raines took some positives out of the performance, but was adamant in his belief that producing effort isn’t simply enough. The SUNS must build a culture that only accepts winning.
 
“I was pretty impressed (with the effort). It’s pretty hard sitting there when you don’t get the four points – and we’ve got to strive to win, we want a winning culture – but at the same time we’ve got to learn some lessons,” Raines said.
 
“The positive out of the game I thought we fought it out. We ran over the top of them and we continued to take the game on.”
 
Raines identified fundamental skill errors as a decisive factor in the loss with critical turnovers and poor decision making hurting the SUNS on Saturday night. The Crows booted 9.9 from turnovers to put the home team to the sword.
 
“Disappointing, we didn’t get the four points – you go into every game wanting that. But, with a young group and a young environment, I thought we stood up and competed. Just fundamental mistakes, turnovers, resulted in them kicking goals,” Raines said.
 
“I felt like, even in the last quarter, we were still trying to take the game on and that was the direction from Rocket. The boys did everything they could, it was just some fundamental mistakes we’ve got to work on.”