If the AFL were writing a screenplay about a couple of siblings based around its two newest franchises, Gold Coast and Greater Western Sydney, the casting would seem pretty obvious.
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The Giants would be the glamorous, attractive and popular younger kid. The Suns? Well, they'd be the older, plainer and in this case not necessarily wiser sister who just can't seem to impress anyone.
As Gold Coast plays the support role in Port Adelaide's Chinese expedition this weekend, it's with a sense that the Suns might at least be able to claim a "first". Or as chief executive Mark Evans put it: "This gives us something to put on our rap sheet".
It's GWS which rightly gets all the attention with its cavalcade of bright young stars and sights set on a first flag after being the first of the new kids to reach the finals. The Suns, having shot themselves in the foot a number of times in their seven-year AFL history, are as a consequence marked more harshly.
It means their small triumphs are often overlooked and their slip-ups are widely pilloried. As happened again at the start of this season after the Suns lost to wooden spoon favourite Brisbane then were taken apart to the tune of 102 points by their envied little sister GWS.
But almost by stealth after that horrendous opening to 2017, Gold Coast are beginning again to take some decent steps forward, Geelong last Saturday their best scalp yet. And in circumstances for which they've been given virtually no credit.
Brisbane has by some the margin the youngest and least-experienced list in the AFL this season. The Lions are cut plenty of slack because of it. Carlton, too, in its rebuild under Brendon Bolton, is frequently accorded the same largesse with a stack of youngsters.
You don't ever hear that about Gold Coast. But the Suns this season have frequently been less seasoned than the Blues or Lions.
When Brisbane upset Gold Coast in round one, it was actually the Lions, some would say astonishingly, with the older and more experienced 22. And in every one of the seven rounds so far this season, the Suns have fielded a younger, more inexperienced line-up than Carlton.
Whose fault is that? Well, there's no doubt Gold Coast's initial list build upon entering the competition in 2011 was poor. But the likes of coach Rodney Eade continue to often carry the can for those far-reaching errors of judgement.
Eade is in his third season in charge of the Suns. But when you put a list together from scratch, getting it wrong can mean a price paid for far longer than just three years. And again, it's GWS which provides the perfect contrast.
The Giants, in list demographic terms, are perfectly placed in 2017. With an average age of just over 24, GWS still have the seventh-youngest list in the AFL. But it's also one with plenty of necessary experience, the Giants average 75 games the fourth-most seasoned in the competition.
The difference with Gold Coast is stark indeed. When the Suns played their first AFL match in 2011, the average age of their side was 22.8 and their average experience 53.6 games. Seven seasons down the track, those figures have hardly budged, the Suns round one line-up this year with an average age of 23.7 and average games 67.8.
From that initial 2011 list of 53, just a dozen players remain. There's only nine left from the initial draft intake - David Swallow, Tom Lynch, Sam Day, Steven May, Rory Thompson, Brandon Matera, Trent McKenzie, Tom Nicholls and Matt Shaw - and those last three have this season played just one game between them. And the only mature-aged players left from that first crop are Gary Ablett, Jarrod Harbrow and Michael Rischitelli.
That's some turnover, the baton long since handed to the likes of Aaron Hall, Touk Miller, Jack Martin, Alex Sexton and Adam Saad to see the Suns' development project through.
They've been making a better fist of it lately, too, the Geelong win coming after a very competitive road trip against North Melbourne and comprehensive wins over Hawthorn and Carlton.
It will take a few more yet before the tide of opinion starts turning. But perhaps also with it the misconceptions about who the Suns actually are. That older, plainer sibling is in fact these days more the little sister to GWS. Still struggling for attention, but with more sustainable ambitions.
