After an experimental NAB Cup campaign, the Gold Coast SUNS have a huge challenge ahead in the form of their second AFL season, a challenge the playing group can’t wait to tackle.
The energy around GC SUNS headquarters is lifting with only 10 days until the Opening Round clash against the Adelaide Crows. General Manager of Football Operations, Marcus Ashcroft said that the general feeling is one of anticipation and excitement that after a long pre-season, footy is finally back.
“We’re just over a week out so we’ve scheduled some down time. The boys will have a really solid session today (Wednesday) involving match simulation and hard conditioning post training which is really their blowout session before they get Friday, Saturday and Sunday off.
“Next week the players should be fresh after the short break, not playing on the weekend and not travelling. Everyone should be lively and bubbly and we will fine tune our training program next week specifically for the game on Saturday against Adelaide,” he said.
The Crows are the in-form team of the competition and the season opener is certainly going to be an exciting match, with many GC SUNS fans looking forward to seeing how Karmichael Hunt performs in his second season of AFL and who will stand up to replace Nathan Bock in the back half.
“After the way Karmichael performed in the midfield this pre-season you would think he’d start there. Matthew Warnock had a great game last week against Sam Reid of Sydney. He will probably have a key match up against the Crows up forward, whether it is Kurt Tippett or one of the other key tall forwards. At the other end of the ground I think Tom Lynch has played well at centre half forward so I’d imagine he’d be our key target forward.
“Some of the smaller players who have impressed enough to be considered part of our best 22 come Round 1 are Harley Bennell, Aaron Hall, Luke Russell and Dion Prestia. It’s going to be exciting to see how they go.”
There is no doubt of increased scrutiny on the GC SUNS to perform on field this year, the pressure and rising expectations coming not only from fans and coaches, but the players themselves.
“The players are highly competitive, naturally, they are all elite young men. They’ve been in environments where they’ve been successful in their own individual right, they’ve been good young players, hence why they’re up the front of the draft, and they also became accustomed to playing in successful teams in their underage years.
“These guys want to have team success, as we all do, so their internal expectations rise and it’s our challenge as a coaching staff to try and control that to a level where it doesn’t actually impede their performance.”
Seeing members and fans fill the stands wearing GC SUNS red and hearing the passionate support on game day makes an enormous difference to the energy of every player on field.
“The collective roar of the crowd when you play well or you kick a goal is really uplifting and it makes a big difference when you’re trying to get those goals each quarter to win a game of footy. We hope to be in games long enough to be one or two goals around the mark to win a game of footy.”
GC SUNS host Adelaide Crows in the Opening Round of the 2012 Toyota AFL Premiership Season at Metricon Stadium at 3.45pm on March 31.
The full team list will be announced on Thursday before the match. Visit goldcoastfc.com.au for details.
