New Gold Coast leader George Horlin-Smith says the SUNS must grab every opportunity to improve as a group, starting with Sunday's JLT Community Series opener against the Western Bulldogs. 

Gold Coast beat Brisbane by 33 points in a practice match at the weekend and Horlin-Smith said the pre-season competition was "really important" for his new team.

Gold Coast plays the Bulldogs in Mackay and then Sydney in Lismore before starting its premiership campaign against St Kilda in round one.

"Any competitive moment, whether it be training or in games, are important minutes for us because we are trying to jell so many new faces together," Horlin-Smith said.

"To do that in a game situation is really important leading into the first five or six games of the season and we need to make it count."

The SUNS have 13 new faces on their list, many of which will be competing for a round one position.

Anthony Miles, Jack Hombsch, Jordan Murdoch, Sam Collins, Chris Burgess, Horlin-Smith and draftees Jack Lukosius, Izak Rankine and Ben King all fall between 'certainty' and 'in the mix'. 

After seven seasons at Geelong – all resulting in finals appearances – and 51 senior games, Horlin-Smith has made an immediate impact at Gold Coast, making its eight-man leadership group announced earlier this week.

He said there was no point trying to predict a number of wins for the season, saying the SUNS' goals were simple. 

"The difference from day one of pre-season until now has been an enormous amount of growth," Horlin-Smith said.

"If we keep that momentum going, we'll see some good results through the year, how many (wins) that is I'm not too sure and I doubt we'll put a figure on it, we just want to make sure we're playing the right manner of football.

"I think we'll go in with a clear mindset as to what a good game looks like for us, whether that's measured by wins or other KPIs, we've got to make sure we stick fat to what we want to look like as a team and hopefully that's a team Gold Coast people are proud of."