Gold Coast SUNS midfielder Matt Shaw has expressed "great relief” after he put pen to paper on a new contract recently.
A breakout season in 2013, in which Shaw averaged 19 possessions per game, had SUNS fans expecting big things from the blond-haired wingman in 2014.
However, after a solid start to the season, Shaw averaged just 13.5 touches per game in the second half of the year and found himself left out of the senior side on two occasions.
With a new contract finalised though, the Dandenong Stingrays product is focused purely on playing good football in 2015 and expects the results to come.
“Yeah, it’s a great relief (to sign),” Shaw told SUNS TV.
“Focused on playing footy now and training hard and focusing on what we’re going to do for 2015.”
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The 23-year-old put in the hard yards during the off-season, returning to Metricon Stadium in peak condition when training resumed in November.
That appetite for extra work has transferred onto the training track with Shaw thriving this pre-season.
“I haven’t missed too much of the pre-season which has been good,” he said.
“A couple of the boys have been a bit injury-riddled but I’ve been lucky enough to stick out most of the sessions on the track, which is good, and I’ve probably had the best pre-season I’ve ever had.”
The foundation SUN spoke glowingly of new senior coach Rodney Eade, who has been at the club since November, describing in detail the impact ‘Rocket’ has had on standards, culture and professionalism.
“Obviously with the new coach, the boys just seem to have gotten a lot more disciplined around training and being the ultimate professionals. Rocket’s brought a really good culture into the club.
“I mean, having the fresh coach, it’s obviously freshened the boys up a fair bit and they want to play for the coach and play for the team as well so it’s a lot of team-first attitude around the club.
“(We’re) looking after each other and it’s a really exciting place to be around at the moment.”
With the 2015 pre-season now sliding into its fourth month, Shaw admitted he couldn’t wait for the real stuff to come back.
“The boys are pumped to get stuck into the season.
“We’ve had a really tough pre-season so the boys are just hanging to play some games now.”
