Captain Steven May is looking forward to the healthy competition for spots among the SUNS’ tall timber.
The squad has more depth when it comes to key position players, with Sam Day making his return from injury at last week’s AFLX tournament.
The South Australian will be aiming to cement a spot in the forward line, with competition coming from the likes of Tom Lynch and Peter Wright.
Senior coach Stuart Dew also has the option to use Day in the backline, partering him with one or more of May, Jack Leslie and Rory Thompson.
“Well maybe they won’t all fit, and they will create some healthy competition for spots,” May told SEN on Thursday.
“Having that calibre of players available will only keep those other boys on their toes and hopefully propel us into some wins.”
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That competitiveness among the playing group will be driven by the club’s leadership group.
The new additions to the group, Pearce Hanley and Jarrod Witts, are heading into their second year at the Gold Coast and May sees this as a massive positive for the club.
“Yeah, Pearce Hanley as soon as he joined us last year, he had an immediate impact on the training track and in meetings and I was impressed by that.”
“And Wittsy came up and had a really good year actually, we ended up getting him from Collingwood as a back-up ruckman and he took that number 1 ruck spot straight away, and now he’s elevated to the leadership group and that’s good for the footy club.”
With the impending return of footy next week, SUNS’ players will be increasing their intensity on the training track in the hopes of being named in the squad.
Gold Coast’s first game of the JLT Community Series will be at Riverway Stadium in Townsville against Geelong on March 4.
