The Gold Coast SUNS will need to maximise their opportunities with the football this weekend, if they’re to be in with a chance against a Richmond outfit ranked fourth in the competition for disposal efficiency, according to senior coach Guy McKenna.
“There are different stats you could look at to make sure you are a good, bad or different side and that’s certainly one of the stats they use and use it effectively,” he told goldcoastfc.com.au.
However, the SUNS certainly won’t be making it too easy for the Tigers, with McKenna hinting his boys may be out to expose the Tigers in an area their not too familiar with – contested possession. 2013 stats show the Tigers are currently ranked in the bottom tier in the competition for the hard ball.
The GC SUNS will be hoping a lack of defensive pressure may haunt the Tigers this weekend.
“They’re not a big tackling side because they play a kick-and-catch method which doesn’t allow you to play that contested brand of football like Sydney,” McKenna said.
“So we certainly have to get up in their face and force that poor disposal so we play the game on our terms.”
“That’s the weekly challenge – always playing the game on our terms as opposed to the opposition terms.”
Tigers skipper Trent Cotchin has already appealed to his playing group for a more competitive effort this weekend, telling reporters his top eight hopefuls were a different team than the one that fell to the Gold Coast last year.
“When you have a disappointing result go your way the week prior, you always want to come out and prove that you're still playing good footy," he said.
"We've let ourselves down the last couple of years (in Cairns), but we're a different team the way we've been playing in the last few weeks. Aside from last week, we've really come a long way.
"The conditions up in Cairns are a little bit different to down in Melbourne and we're prepared for that … we've had two years of it now, we know what to expect."
And after his superb shut-down role on Lions star Daniel Rich, Danny Stanley has emerged as the most likely tagger for the captain – but McKenna stopped short by revealing who he had in mind for the job, instead saying any one of his foot soldiers would be capable carrying out the tough defensive assignment.
“As far as our players we have a few who are able to do those run-with roles through the midfield, and able to deny their opposition player the football,” said McKenna.
“The art of that is getting it first… we’ll certainly be targeting some of their midfielders but I’m sure they’ll be targeting some of our mids as well.”
