Speaking before this morning’s training session, Riley said a change in attitude towards the contested football would be the major difference amongst the players in their NAB Cup Challenge against the Demons this Saturday at the Southport Sharks.
“What we’ve learnt is that you don’t sustain AFL intensity and pressure you get filled in, which is exactly what we saw in the opening term in Townsville (against the Kangaroos) and last week against Sydney,” said Riley.
“But the most pleasing thing to take away from the contests was that for three quarters we were more than competitive against very good football teams.”
Riley said he was impressed by the performance of young gun Jaeger O’Meara against the Swans. O’Meara is likely to make his official AFL debut in the GC SUNS season opener against St. Kilda after collecting 24 possessions in the side’s loss to Sydney.
“You could hardly not be impressed by O’Meara’s performances in the midfield,” said Riley.
“He trains hard, wins his own ball, and restricts the opposition of the footy… there’s definitely a strong foundation for Jaeger to build around.”
After producing another strong performance in the backline against one of the AFL rising power-forwards in Sam Reid, Riley said Rory Thompson had earned the respect from the SUNS coaching staff and players to command the key centre half-back position.
“Rory Thompson has played two outstanding games in the centre half-back position against two very good opponents in Lance Franklin and Sam Reid, while Sam Day also showed an improved performance from previous weeks by taking more marks inside-50 and accumulating some possessions,” Riley said.
With skipper Gary Ablett, Karmichael Hunt and Jarrod Harbrow expected to return to action after being rested against the Swans last weekend, Riley said the local crowd could expect senior coach Guy McKenna to field the best available side for the final practise match of the pre-season.
“We’ll be picking a good a team as we can this week to play Melbourne, so I’d expect Gary and Karmichael to be there.”
“This is a full blown hit-out and they’ll be going hard,” Riley said.
