It might be a homecoming of sorts for former Top End star Jared Brennan, however NEAFL coach Shaun Hart says it’ll be business as usual for the talented livewire when he boards the flight north to Darwin as the GC SUNS  look to continue their recent strong form against the NT Thunder at TIO Stadium on Saturday night.

“Being from up there and being a hometown hero I’m expecting he’d be looking to play and enormous game,” says Hart.

“So I’m looking forward to that.”

The 167-game star midfielder developed and honed his unorthodox game-style with the NTFL’s Southern Districts, and leading the Northern Territory squad as co-captain for the AFL’s National U18 Championships, was taken with the third overall selection in the 2002 AFL Draft.

The Gold Coasters will be hoping Brennan’s mountain of experience in the tropics rubs off on his side’s younger brigade of talent as they look to cope with the warm and testing conditions Darwin presents.

“I think it’s going to be a great challenge for those who travel on behalf of the GC SUNS listed players,” he said.

“To really compete for the full duration of the four quarters… we know it’s tough conditions up there but we just have to be able to manage our squad and make sure we handle the conditions that are expected.”

Returning defender Matthew Warnock and Seb Tape are expected to share the workload of limiting Darren Ewing’s impact on the scoreboard, with the Thunder’s spearhead coming off a monstrous seven-goal outing against the Sydney Swans Reserves in his side’s 52-point victory at Traeger Park last weekend.

“It’s going to be a great test for us, we’re down on foot soldier and the Territory are a terrific team, they beat Sydney Swans last week so they’re up and about so we’re going to have to match them physically around the ground.”

The NEAFL SUNS might be without offensive weapons Steven May, Maverick Weller, Greg Broughton and rookie-listed Andrew Boston with the four players earning a first team recall, but Hart will lose very little down back – with his experienced back-six set to cause numerous headaches for the interstate rivals.

“We have great leadership in our backline and it has been moulding together really well,” said Hart.

“We get Jeremy Taylor back as well also, and have some great young guns coming through.

“So we just want to make sure this time we play four really strong quarters and bring home the premiership points.”