Jack Lukosius will be staying in the forward line following his match-winning five goal performance against Geelong on Sunday, Gold Coast coach Stuart Dew says.

Since being taken with the second pick in the 2018 AFL Draft, Lukosius has played all over the ground in his 76 games, primarily in defence and on a wing.

But against the Cats, he showed he belongs in the front half of the ground, with a breakout outing that was punctuated with a stunning 73m set shot with the game in the balance.

The 23-year-old trained as a forward all pre-season, but with Brandon Ellis, Lachie Weller and Wil Powell all unavailable for the opening round, Dew played the South Australian on a wing.

Then, after a strong first half against Essendon in round two as a forward, Dew moved Lukosius to a wing again.

It's a mistake the SUNS coach says he won't be making again.

"I'll put my hand up," Dew said.

"Last week he played a really good first half, and we were trying to ignite something and we moved him. 

"I accept that. I think he's had a great summer forward of the ball, and at different times because he can do (different) things, we shuffle him. 

"It's a lesson for us that he can play that role and be damaging when he's given an opportunity. He's repaid the faith, he's worked really hard."

Against Geelong it was the complete forward's game. His first goal came after leading back into space and marking a Touk Miller kick. His second came after a nice Ben King handball and his third from a contested mark in front of Zach Tuohy.

But it was the fourth-quarter heroics that left everyone at Heritage Bank Stadium with their jaws on the ground.

With players from both teams struggling to kick straight all day, it took Lukosius to put the game away with his bomb from the centre square.

"Initially I thought we needed to take 30 seconds off the clock and then I thought, 'I'm within range'," Lukosius told reporters following the match.

"I wasn't sure the umpire was going to let me take my shot, but lucky he did.

"I have kicked them that far at training, usually a torp though, but I didn't back that in on game day. I got every bit of it, which was lucky.

"I knew it had the journey, it was just whether it went in or not and it just snuck in next to the post. It was a great feeling."

Lukosius finished with a game-high 12 score involvements from his 13 disposals to underline his impact.

Dew said having Weller and Powell back in the team made a huge difference as both could rotate between half-back and wing, leaving Lukosius to partner King and Levi Casboult as the primary marking options.

The SUNS coach said at different times last season when Lukosius played inside 50, he would get into good positions, but be missed by his teammates.

"We probably just haven't been able to connect with him as much as we would have liked, we just missed him, to the point where I bought a high-vis shirt for him to wear around the club so that everyone could see him. 

"I just said: 'we're missing this guy, he's there, he can do it, we've just got to get it to him'.

"It was a great moment for him, and he's just going to build on that."