Gold Coast SUNS CEO Mark Evans has given his take on the club’s new direction for 2019 and beyond. 

Speaking on SEN on Friday night, Evans said the club served a higher purpose than to just win football games.

“We’re here to win the hearts and minds of people on the Coast and in Queensland,” he said. 

“(We want to) inspire them to come to our game and fall in love with our game and cultivate that real passionate support that you get if you’re a club that’s been around for 100 years.

“That’s going to take some time but I’m happy to say that it’s working.

“The participation rate in Queensland is terrific and the growth is terrific and that’s from great partnerships with AFL Queensland and local clubs.” 

READ: AFL participation in Queensland reaches record high

Evans was a key figure behind the club’s recent Brand Launch and the mantra behind it: Challenge Accepted.

He said the club had been caught in a cycle and was candid in his assessment of what the club needed to do to rise up the ladder. 

“We’ve now decided here’s the time to reset what we’re doing, a very deliberate transformation,” Evans said.

“As part of that we’re telling the community we know that the road ahead has got plenty of bumps, but that we’re up for the challenge.”

“We’ll break the cycle, that’s a challenge, grow the game in Queensland, that’s a challenge, try and find a way to unite a group of players around a coach who stay and commit for the long-term; accept the challenge and go and do it.”

The preliminary stages of the reset started 12 months ago, when Evans brought in three new key figures to the football department: Jon Haines, Stuart Dew and Craig Cameron. 

“We appointed Stuey because we think he’s the best chance that we had of working with a group of players and developing that loyalty and camaraderie,” Evans said.

“He’s outstanding at that sort of stuff and we’ve added some experience around him this year.

“Josh Francou is a very experienced campaigner and great strategic mind, Josh Drummond was 2IC or 3IC to Brad Scott.

“Tate Kaesler comes from a strong education background with him from Adelaide, Tim Clarke’s come as a development coach and Andrew Swallow’s come on board so I’m confident in the people that we’ve got around Stuey.”

While Evans conceded wins and losses would ultimately be the indicator of club performance in the future, there will be plenty of other signs to show the SUNS are on the rise this year.

“You can’t have the Gold Coast SUNS sitting at three, four or five wins for seven or eight years in a row and expect that’s regarded as improvement,” he said.

“That could come down to position in the game where we’re showing great competitiveness and the deeper into the game you go the better - that might come out in percentage or quarters won.

“For us there will be KPI’s around how we’ve progressed players and particularly the young players that will be such a part of the future. 

“I don’t think we can back away from that as being one of the real KPI’s for us this season.”

The club has the first opportunity to show that improvement in JLT1 at Great Barrier Reef Arena in Mackay. 

While it is still just a pre-season game, it will be an important fixture to give the side confidence heading into the premiership season.

“I’d hope by the end of this season that people will have us in the same mould as Brisbane, who only won five games last year when we won four,” Evans said.

“But people will understand that we’re on the right path and that’s what we want for this year.”