So this is the Tom Lynch everyone’s been talking about.

Welcome to 2017 Tom. Dermie and Browny were right, you’re some player.

The Gold Coast SUNS captain booted seven goals in a formidable display where he ran and jumped and marked and ran again.

Dermott Brereton made the call prior to the season. He said Lynch was the best player in the competition. Jonathan Brown said it too, late last year.

Both were star centre-half forwards so could be suspected of bias, but his bravura performance showed they were ahead of the game.

He said he was thrilled to land seven majors.

“I’ve got five a fair few times now so it was good to just get over that,” Lynch said.

“I try to pride myself on my work rate and getting up and down … they said you’ve got a big tank so you’ve got to use it so that’s what I’ve really tried to work my game on.”

Lynch’s first goal came after he led purposefully in front of Lachie Plowman, taking a strong mark out in front. He landed it from 50 on a tight angle.

Then Sam Rowe went to him.

When Rowe muscled him out of marking contest on the centre wing, Lynch didn’t hang his head.

Instead he watched the ball movement and hung around up high, sensing the turnover might be on.

And he was right.

As the ball moved to the far wing, Lynch ran into the middle of the ground. A wayward Blues kick inboard and he pounced on the ground ball in the centre square, feeding it out to the Gold Coast runners.

He then hot-footed it forward and as the SUNS mucked around with it in the middle, he found himself free in the pocket and demanded the footy. He marked and booted his second.

Lynch runs a lot. I’d love to see his GPS numbers. His style suits the Gold Coast’s wide game plan, or maybe the SUNS' game style is made for him.

He roams the 50m arc, pacing back and forth.

He sprinted the length of the ground at one stage with Jacob Weitering, simply to make sure the defender turned forward was manned up.

He made a mad dash probably 50m to take a mark at centre wing in the second quarter.

He played on, baulking the man on the mark before taking a bounce.

The radio commentator suggested he was showboating. Showing how it’s done more like it because just moments later he was on the lead again and booting his fifth.

Lynch’s pace and versatility is a killer for any defender. And other key forwards should take note of his marking technique - even when had had the opportunity to take a chest mark he still chose to take it out in front.

But most of all he doesn’t miss. In fact, the SUNS rarely did.