STAR midfielder Dion Prestia was one of the Gold Coast SUNS shining lights during their close encounter against Richmond at Cazaly’s Stadium this evening.

In testing, humid conditions, Prestia went on to finish with a team-high 27 disposals, six clearances and five tackles – and continued to show tremendous fight and hunger for the football with the game in the balance.

It looked as though Guy McKenna’s playing group were on track to claim victory for the third consecutive year in tropical north Queensland as they took the contest to the Tigers from the opening bounce establishing a handy 12-point lead heading into the quarter-time break.

“We came out strong in the opening term, and really tried to make an effort to put them on the back foot early,” said Prestia.

“Unfortunately we weren’t able to make the most of our opportunities around goals, and they soon built up momentum after responding on the scoreboard.”

Things immediately began to turn south after Rory Thompson went down with an elbow injury, the All-Australian contender keeping Jack Reiwoldt to just six touches and zero goals before being substituted out of the match for Andrew Boston.

And while Sam Day and Seb Tape continued to perform a stellar defensive job on the two-time Coleman Medallist, Prestia said Thompson’s absence was a significant momentum-changer for both AFL rivals.

“Rory’s absence in defence was definitely noted heading into the second-half,” Prestia said.

“Although Seb (Tape) and Sam (Day) both kept Reiwoldt quiet after half-time, Rory going down was certainly costly for our defensive structures.”

SUNS coach Guy McKenna said Thompson had become one of his most important players and would be impossible to replace if he was out of action for an extended period.

“He has had a super season for us, especially considering his age and his experience as a backman. He has stood up against some very big names for us at centre half back,” McKenna said.

“We expected Nathan Bock to take on the best forwards and Rory to get the second best but Bock has been hurt and he has had a big introduction to footy.”

“With Travis Cloke next week so we are hoping for positive results from his scans, that’s for sure.’’

But with two back-to-back blockbusters against Collingwood and Carlton to come at Metricon Stadium, the Gold Coaster said the boys could not afford to dwell too much on tonight’s final result, instead saying the team would now begin looking towards the challenge of claiming the Premiership points over the AFL powerhouses in front of their red and gold faithful.

 “We can’t afford to think too much on tonight’s loss,” he said.

“We’ve got some crucial matches coming up against the Magpies and the Blues, so we need to look ahead.”