Following Saturday night’s two-point loss to Brisbane, Gold Coast coach Rodney Eade said the attitude within the club’s playing group was good and the first 20 minutes of the game, in which the SUNS gave their opponents a seven-goal head start, was simply an ‘aberration’.
To level the scores in the final quarter after trailing by 46-points at half time showed the fight of the team on the park, a view reinforced by assistant coach Matthew Primus when he fronted the media at SUNS headquarters on Monday afternoon.
“Their attitude to come back from 47-points down shows that their attitude was good and they believe in what they can do and how they can run out a game,” Primus said.
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“It’s just the ability to make sure the lead doesn’t get that big and then when we do have the ball in our hands being a bit smarter and a bit more composed so we’re happy with the attitude.
“We’re not happy with the first 15 minutes but the attitude overall was pretty good and the brand of footy that they played we were pretty happy with.”
The SUNS have an opportunity for redemption in round two when they travel to Spotless Stadium to take on Greater Western Sydney, with the Giants coming off a heavy defeat to Adelaide on a six-day break.
But Gold Coast aren’t concerned with what the Crows did, or the Giants for that matter, with a focus on getting their own game right and dictating it on their terms.
“We’re really focused on what we’re going to do, how we play the game,” Primus said.
“We were really happy with it for three quarters, we just weren’t happy enough with that first 20 minutes.”
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There are set to be a number of enthralling match-ups this Saturday, including the midfield matchup between Kelly, Shiel, Scully, Ward and Griffen of the Giants against Gary Ablett, Jarryd Lyons, Aaron Hall, Michael Barlow and Touk Miller.
The SUNS midfield will need to be at their best to create the necessary opportunities for Tom Lynch and co in the Gold Coast forward line.
“We think our midfield certainly generated enough opportunities and our forwards certainly capitalised, but we didn’t capitalise enough so look it’s going to be all over the park,” Primus said.
“But we know it starts with the midfield and we’ve got to make sure our midfield are on song not only from the start but as the game keeps going along and we’re away from home so it’s a different proposition.”
David Swallow remains ‘touch and go’ after rolling an ankle at training, with a view to assess the West Australian’s availability at Thursday’s main training session at Metricon Stadium.
