Gold Coast SUNS senior coach Guy McKenna is confident the playing group will grow in confidence during after the home team secured one win from their two NAB Cup matches at Metricon Stadium.
Speaking after the SUNS loss to Brisbane McKenna said the clubs coaching staff had taken plenty of positives out of the encounters and were looking to build a winning culture in the SUNS locker-room.
“We still want to get off to a good start so that we can build confidence into these boys and we saw a glimpse of what the squad is capable of tonight,” said McKenna.
“We didn’t get a lot of the football (in the Brisbane match), but when we had it offensively we scored efficiently so from that stand-point it was really good, we just need to get better in our contested footy.”
Despite being unable to repeat their solid performance against Hawthorn during their second match of the evening against Brisbane, McKenna said there were a number of stand-out performers who certainly made the most of an opportunity cement their spot in top twenty for the season opener against St Kilda.
“Jesse Lonergan flashed through early against the Lions and new recruits Greg Broughton and Tom Murphy certainly showed us their going to be handy players down back,” McKenna said.
“Rory Thompson put his hand up to play centre half-back and I thought Zac Smith showed glimpses of his first-year form, and I think after tonight’s performance he’s probably grabbed that number 1 ruckman spot over versatile utility Charlie Dixon.”
McKenna said the clubs coaching staff had identified a number of key areas of improvement for the squad ahead of next weekend’s round two clash against North Melbourne in Townsville.
“Our tackling in the first game was fantastic, in particular our desire to put our head over the footy.”
“From a coaching point of view, we would have preferred to take both games but we had a good result and a bad result… so we’ll learn from the good and what brought us the victory and learn from the poor mistakes we made in the loss.”
Photos from Round 1 of NAB Cup triangular series matches between the Gold Coast SUNS, Hawthorn and Brisbane Lions now available for viewing here.
Lots of Positives as the SUNS launch their NAB Cup campaign
Gold Coast SUNS senior coach Guy McKenna is confident the playing group will grow in confidence during after the home team secured one win from their two NAB Cup matches at Metricon Stadium.
