Gold Coast SUNS AFLW Head Coach Cameron Joyce is preparing for his side’s first home game of the year against West Coast at Heritage Bank Stadium on Saturday afternoon.

Joyce visions making Heritage Bank Stadium a fortress after a quartet of wins in at home last year in a warning to the rest of the competition.

“We want to make it a really hard place to play here,” Joyce said.

“We won four out of five home games last year and we are looking to start on that right note this weekend.”

Following last week’s match against Carlton, Joyce had plenty of positives to take away accompanied with some key learning points.

“We probably took a little bit to adjust to what the game was throwing up, but we certainly rattled home,” Joyce stated.

“We probably had some opportunities we left out there throughout the first three quarters and we took them in the last quarter.

“There are definitely some learnings for us about how to adjust to what different oppositions throw up at us but at the same time to get the game played as we want it to and how we wrestle it back to what we want it to look like.”

Joyce highlights the importance of starting well against the Eagles and has narrowed his focus to team-defence and ball movement.

“We know we have got to be up to the task and up for the contest from the first bounce,” Joyce continued.

“We move the ball the way we know we can and then support that with really good team defence.”

These teams have not played each other since Round 2 last season where the SUNS kept West Coast to two goals and walked away 33-point victors.

The SUNS have made just the one forced change with Kalinda Howarth unavailable after suffering an ACL injury at training earlier this week. Ashanti Bush comes into the side for her first game of the season.

Gates open Heritage Bank Stadium at 10:15am ahead of the first bounce at 11:05am.