Tune into SUNS TV for more

By Michael Whiting

Gold Coast SUNS coach Guy McKenna has brushed aside concerns following last week's loss to Greater Western Sydney, saying his main focus was preparing well for round one.

McKenna was criticised for taking his senior players off in the second half of last weekend's 13-point loss, but said the pre-season was about managing player time and getting effort from his struggling SUNS.

Gold Coast SUNS finishes its NAB Cup commitments on Saturday against a Sydney Swans outfit finalising its preparations for a round one showdown on March 24 with the cross-town rival Giants.

"I listened to [Swans coach] John Longmire after last week's game against the Bombers … he's certainly winding up for round one," McKenna said.

"After being soft with our effort over the last two weeks, it's a great opportunity to match up with one of the better sides in contested situations."

The GC SUNS coach said he would have preferred to beat the fledgling Giants, but was adamant he had the bigger picture in mind when his team travelled to Albury.

"It was all about organising game time for some of these boys," he said.

"I've got an eye for round one and I've also got an eye for round seven [when the SUNS meet the Giants].

"I'd much prefer to beat them in round seven than in the NAB Cup. I don't think it affected Sydney's performance last year when we beat them in the NAB Cup. I'd do it again.

"I actually said to the playing group if things went to plan, we would have sent our kids to play Greater Western Sydney. It would have been a good opportunity to send our kids but our plans changed because of our [lack of] effort against Geelong.

"That changed and we went down there with the mindset of playing our brand of football. I'd prefer to win of course."

With the exception of just a handful of players, Gold Coast SUNS will trot out its probable round one team against the Swans.

Michael Rischitelli has been rested with the flu, while Brandon Matera and Charlie Dixon will be out to impress when the SUNS reserves play the Brisbane Lions reserves this weekend.

"We don't know how they'll perform this week but it gives us a good opportunity to see how they perform and see how they pull up and make that decision the week after," he said.

"Our plans have always been to get right for round one and perform at our best for round one."