Gold Coast SUNS coach Guy McKenna says his team has taken a massive step despite its 22-point loss against the Western Bulldogs on Saturday.
After trailing by as much as 49 points late in the third quarter, the GC SUNS finished full of running to give the Bulldogs a slight scare in the final term.
Despite squandering numerous chances in the first half – they kicked 5.10 – McKenna was full of praise for his young team.
He said he had encouraged them to take the game on, and with that came the risk of mistakes.
"We wanted to play a better brand of football than we had over the past two weeks," he said.
"We've been competitive but not really putting a foot forward and I thought today the boys put a foot forward and had a crack.
"We turned the ball over and our zone pushed up and they got easy goals over the back, but we understand that we're a young, developing side.
"We wanted to play fast football, we wanted to push these blokes into the deep end and they responded and it was exciting.
"The 22-point loss is not exciting for our supporters, but where the boys have come from I think it's a massive step."
The GC SUNS missed a host of kickable goals in the first half.
David Swallow missed an open goal on the run, Jared Brennan a set shot, Dion Prestia two on the run and Tom Lynch a set shot, but McKenna found the positives.
"I don't look at it as frustrating. The boys are getting good shots on goal and missing, but it's encouraging the fact they got into those positions," he said.
"They miss, but we know it could be another 10 rounds before David Swallow nails those goals.
"All those kids running in and having shots on goal, just give them time. When they start nailing them, look out."
On a lighter note, McKenna saw the bright side of midfielder Michael Rischitelli's bizarre second quarter incident where he kicked the ball 45m in the wrong direction that resulted in a Bulldogs goal.
He said the only time he had seen anything similar was in his playing days for West Coast when David Hart put one on Hawk Jason Dunstall's chest.
"It's hard enough to fight the opposition with 22 but the 23rd bloke jumps up and plays for the opposition in our colours it makes it very hard," he laughed.