A season-defining victory over North Melbourne has left Gold Coast wanting more, key defender Trent McKenzie has revealed.

The four points earned against Brad Scott’s team won’t count for much, though, if the GC SUNS can’t knock off 14th-placed St Kilda in round 9, with the injury-hit Saints currently on a three-game slide.

“We’re going to take full game momentum but we know every game is not easy, so we’re going in with the same mindset we did against the Kangaroos,” McKenzie said.

“We played a good brand of footy down there so we’ll take confidence out of that.”

A sensational start to the season has seen the SUNS emerge as genuine finals contenders in 2014, with wins in five of their first seven starts.

While the ambition of playing finals footy is burning stronger than ever, McKenzie says the team can’t afford to begin looking towards a maiden September campaign, stressing there was still plenty of hard work to be done. 

“It’s a long year; it has been a good start but we are only a third of the way through so we just have to keep playing consistent footy and get into the next phase of the fixture.

“Hopefully we can be in the same position.”

Guy McKenna’s 22 has shown tremendous on-field growth and maturity, but so too has ‘The Cannon’, with McKenzie averaging just short of 20 disposals this season. 

His ability to work the ball out of dangerous territory has taken a step-up in his fourth season in the AFL, with the former Western Jets junior ranking sixth overall for total rebound 50s, demonstrating how potent his ‘super boot’ can still be.

Fresh from the seven-day break, McKenzie says he, along with the rest of the playing group, is looking forward to backing up the team’s early-season efforts against the Saints at Etihad Stadium this Sunday.

“The boys have come back fresh but we know we have to get back on the horse,” he said.

“We have a big game coming up this week against St Kilda, so hopefully we can go in there and compete for four full quarters.”