The SUNS will once again look to make Metricon Stadium a venue to be feared by opposition teams in AFLW Season Seven, beginning with the first home game of the season this Sunday.
The SUNS return to the Gold Coast to face round one victors West Coast on their home turf for the first time this season, after recording two wins and a draw from its four matches at the venue last season.
Defending the home deck and making it a fortress is high on the priorities for Head Coach Cameron Joyce.
“We love the support from the fans here at Metricon. It’s a reasonably family-friendly time (5.10pm Sunday) and we’re hoping to get plenty of support here on Sunday,” Joyce said at Thursday’s press conference.
“We’re trying to make this a place that, when teams come here, it’s hard to win a game of footy.”
In their way this week are the Eagles, who head east on the back of a come-from-behind victory against Port Adelaide in the opening round.
Sunday’s opposition kicked the final four goals of the game to overrun the Power and Joyce knows his side have a challenge ahead of them.
“They’ve had quite a bit of turnover but have gelled pretty well. Their finish to the game was really impressive,” Joyce added.
“Their midfield is strong and they’ve still got some experience in their squad as well as adding some youth that are talented.”
The SUNS will be looking to find its own final quarter form from its round one outing – a quarter in which the SUNS kicked two goals to none – and take on the game from the opening bounce
“The first three quarters were not the way we wanted to play, we want to get the footy down our end and score,” Joyce added.
“In the last quarter we showed that – had nine inside 50s to three, two goals to none and they (North Melbourne) couldn’t score off that.
“The players have been able to see that against a quality team. We’re really trying to get that going this week at training and get back to our identity.
“We need to make sure we’re ready to take the game on from the start rather than the game coming to us.”
