It is no secret the Gold Coast SUNS boast some of the more talented young midfielders in the competition, with a large portion of them entering their fifth season at the elite level, and primed to become consistent stars.
 
SUNS vice-captain David Swallow became the first player to dethrone Gary Ablett last year when he won his maiden club champion award. Gold Coast midfield coach Matthew Primus revealed the 22-year-old has spent his summer at Carrara honing his craft and working on ways to improve his game to ensure he builds on his stellar 2014 campaign.
 
Former Hawthorn inside midfielder Mitch Hallahan arrived at Metricon Stadium following last year’s trade period to help complement the SUNS polished on-ball brigade. Primus said he believed the specialist extractor will add another string to the midfield division, helping to relieve the pressure on some of the classier ball users.
 
Jaeger O’Meara and Gary Ablett’s rehabilitation from post-season surgery has been the subject of widespread discussion throughout the summer months. Both players are progressing strongly in their recovery with the SUNS captain tipped to feature in at least one NAB Challenge series fixture ahead of the home and away season. Primus revealed the club would not rush O’Meara in his rehabilitation from surgery on both his knees, but his running has progressed strongly since he commenced two weeks ago.
 
Two players that have pressed their claim for a round one berth throughout the pre-season have been Alex Sexton and Matt Shaw. The pair endured frustrating 2014 campaigns due to form and injury concerns, but have both crafted impressive summers. The challenge for them will be playing to a high standard on a consistent basis, according to Primus. At this stage, though, it would appear they couldn’t have done much more over the pre-season to prepare for 2015.
 
One of the biggest problems the SUNS faced last season was the unavailability ruckmen. Both Tom Nicholls and Zac Smith have spent large portions of the past two seasons on the sidelines due to long-term injuries, but both look to have put their chequered injury history behind. Primus wouldn’t rule out the proposition of playing two specialist ruckmen in the same 22, although a fit Charlie Dixon and Sam Day may mean Nicholls and Smith will have to fight for one position in Rodney Eade’s side.

Matthew Primus' insight into the state of his line group:

David Swallow

“Like every player, whether you’re the best player in the competition like an Ablett, or whether you’re starting out as a rookie, you’ve got to find something that you need to get better at. David has a great ability for the contested ball and hitting the scoreboard, so its ability of him to play a few different roles for us whether he can go forward a little bit more, find a bit more of an uncontested ball because his such a combative type of person - so probably those are the areas (he can improve to take his game to the next level this season). So there’s probably a couple of the areas he’s looking to work on and keep up the high standards of his work rate, his leadership, how hard he attacks the ball and the opposition when they have the ball.”

Jaeger O’Meara & Gary Ablett

“They’re tracking pretty well, Jaeger started running last week so he’s in his second week of running and going along pretty well, really haven’t put a timeframe on when he’ll be back whether its NAB Three, round one or round two, we’ll just keep increasing his workload and if he keeps handling it he’ll come along really well. But, the operations have cleared up the problem no problems at all so itching to see him back out there – maybe in a couple of weeks he’ll start training with us. Gary’s been involved in most of the training (during the pre-season) its just slowly increasing his contact work and putting his hands in the air, marking, all that kind of stuff. He’s progressing really well since he last saw the surgeon. Once again there’s no real timeframe on him, but we’d expect him to play some role during the NAB Cup.”

Mitch Hallahan

“We think we’ve got a few guys that are good inside and outside (and) great runners, but Mitch has got a real class inside. He’s really clean with his hands, great use of his body and pretty smart with his hands and his feet in close when it needs to be really quick. I think he will complement guys who have previously played in there, so Ablett, Prestia, O’Meara, Swallow, Harley, those kind of guys – he will really complement them and allow those guys to go and play some different roles that suit their athletic capabilities.”

Dion Prestia & Harley Bennell

“We took it a bit easy with him (Bennell) after Christmas when we started back but he’s been up and going now the last month and hasn’t missed a beat and he’s training at a really high standard. Dion’s had a few back issues that have been ongoing but I think we’re over the hump with them now, and we’d hope that he’d get back to full training next week. He probably wont be available NAB One but he’d available pretty soon after that.”

Michael Rischitelli

“He’s had an outstanding pre-season himself, he’s worked on a couple of areas he wanted to improve on. He’s hasn’t missed a beat, he’s completed nearly every session we’ve had and now feeling really confident about his body – he had a few hamstring issues a few years ago but he’s totally over them, he feels real comfortable now. His direction for our young group, we’ve put a lot of young players through there, Rocket’s really keen to do that. So his direction and leadership out there is really vital for us.”

Matt Shaw & Alex Sexton

“I think it’s just their consistency of playing the game. Especially ‘Shawry’, he has some good games and then he has some games that aren’t quite up to his standard so its maintaining that level quarter in quarter out, game in game out, for him. Both those guys are durable – they don’t miss a session, they’re great runners, they complete every session, they complete them well. So, it’s a matter of them just maintaining a high standard. Probably ‘Secko’s’ a little bit behind ‘Shawry’ in the amount of games he’s played due to injuries but he’s had an outstanding pre-season he’s really been guided by Nick Malceski, whose helped him out with the ability to be able to train at a high level. So we’ve got pretty high expectations of what those two are going to do for us this year.”

Tom Nicholls/ Zac Smith/ Dan Gorringe/ Keegan Brooksby

“It can be difficult at times (to play more than one specialist ruckman) especially with the form 'Lynchy’s' been in for us and what kind of other setup we want to go with whether its Sam Day or Charlie Dixon or Peter Wright. So I think they’ve got the capability to do it but probably not week in week out. Tom and Zac have been competing really hard for that number one ruck spot, they’ve gone at it all pre-season – they’ve got the NAB Cup to sort out who’s going to be the number one and at the moment we’re not quite sure. Keegan’s been really good, he’s a bit more mature than the other guys, not quite as tall as them but he’s a real competitor and he’ll get an opportunity in the NAB cup. ‘Goz’ has done a little bit of ruckwork but we’ve also used him as a forward, he can go down back, play on the wing, he’s got such great versatility with his running capabilities and he covers the ground like a midfielder. His played a variety of different roles; hopefully that gives him the opportunity to play with us in the ones rather than just as a ruckman.”

Jesse Lonergan & Luke Russell

“Luke’s been super this pre-season he had a bit of a thumb injury but he’s been able to complete all of our training just not the contact and competitive stuff. He’s another one that just needs consistency in training and then get out in the games with a bit of luck, but also just playing at a higher level and then letting it have a good game and then drop away a little bit. Jesse’s been unlucky, unfortunately a couple of weeks ago he rolled his ankle and he’s missed the last couple of weeks but he’s back into training Monday. Hopefully he has a bit of luck with him because he was progressing pretty well and he’s another mixture for us through the middle and also with his power he should be able to go forward and do some damage down there as well.”

Andrew Raines

“He’s super professional the way he prepares for training and away from the club, he’s been good for our younger guys to learn off him. He’s been through the caper, been on an AFL list for awhile, and I think he’s about another month away from his PCL, he’s jogging laps, he’ll be back into training in the next fortnight and slowly build it up from there. He’s certainly going to be handy for us with his knowledge and his ability to absorb a 22-week season.”