Throughout a difficult year in Carrara, one of the predominant themes has been finding a silver lining. The injury toll has been catastrophic, there is no hiding from this reality, but amid the chaos, players like Aaron Hall have taken their opportunity with both hands.
 
In the last three weeks, Hall has been thrust into the midfield out of pure necessity given the comprehensive injury plague, and has thrived in the SUNS engine room, despite Gold Coast missing more than their entire first choice midfield department.
 
Against Adelaide at Adelaide Oval in round 17 the Tasmanian collected a career-high 24 possessions in the 45-point loss. A week later he equalled that tally with another haul of 24 and then in Saturday night’s QClash 10 he produced the finest performance of his 57-game career with 28 touches to be labelled by coach Rodney Eade as the best player on the ground behind Tom Lynch.
 
A non-existent pre-season due to off-season groin surgery ensured Hall started the 2015 campaign well and truly on the back foot. It has taken him until after the mid-year point to find some fitness and Hall says a lack of fitness is one of the main reasons why he hasn’t worked his way into the midfield in the past.
 
“It’s always been about my fitness. I haven’t done much of a pre-season over the last couple of seasons. They hadn’t really had the trust in me to be able to run out a game,” Hall told Melbourne radio station SEN 1116 on Sunday.
 
“With the injuries that’s gone on and with ‘Gaz’ going down against Adelaide, Rocket chucked me in there and just said play your footy and just attack the contest. I’ve stayed in there ever since and I’m really enjoying it and learning heaps.
 
“I’ve played a lot of my football as a forward and going into the midfield you’ve got to rate your game a bit differently. I’m loving my time in the midfield and it’s good when the team’s up and going.
 
“I’ve put in a couple of good weeks now and I’ll look to keep going until the end of the season.”
 
At the end of last season, 2015 loomed on the horizon as a place where Gold Coast would play in September for the first time. It appeared almost like a rite of passage with the hard, baron years a thing of the past.
 
A series of events has ensured this will not be the case, but despite enduring a difficult year for the club as a whole, Hall believes the adversity has brought the playing group closer and a strong finish to the year can generate some momentum heading into next year.
 
“It obviously has been a difficult year with everything that’s gone on. Everyone was talking at the start of the season about how we were going to play finals football and that obviously hasn’t gone to plan with injuries and off-field discipline stuff,” Hall said.
 
“The guys haven’t really complained too much, we’ve all just tried to stick together. I think we’ve actually built a bit of resilience through this time and we’ve grown closer as a group – it can only hold us in good stead for the future.
 
“You have to try and take positives out of a negative. It was probably something that we had to maybe go through, we’re starting to come out of the other end now.
 
“We’re starting to play some decent football against some top eight opposition so if we continue that for the last four games we can go into pre-season with a bit of momentum and a bit of confidence leading into 2016.”