They may still be all smiles on the Gold Coast following Saturday night’s win over Carlton, however the Gold Coast SUNS have quickly turned their attention to Saturdays final match of the 2012 season.
The GC SUNS travel South to Adelaide and face a Crows outfit, that mathematically can still claim top spot on the Premiership ladder if results go their way.
Be disappointing to go down there and not finish off well, was the frank assessment of the week ahead from forward Tom Lynch as the GC SUNS gathered at Kurrawa beach this morning to begin preparations for the weekend.The clubs finest victory since entering the Toyota AFL Premiership wasn’t lost on the young star, who was confident there would be an extra spring in the players step at training throughout the week.
"I think we have had three wins at the back end of the season and it’s been good for us, it’s been good for the fans that we have played well at Metricon as well, finally had a win a couple of weeks ago and now we have had a second one and I think if we go down to Adelaide and put in a good performance, just play hard consistent footy it will hold us in good stead."
Obviously it’s been good, it should be a good week on the training track this week, and hopefully we can take that into Adelaide this weekend and finish strong, so we can have good confidence going into the pre-season.
Spurned on by the efforts of housemate Steven May the previous week, Tom Lynch ran riot in the GC SUNS forward line, bagging four goals in what was easily his best performance of the season.
“It’s been good playing with him because we live together and know each other well, so it’s great to play together.”
Lynch said the players understood it was important to play consistent football, otherwise they ran the risk of being relegated to the seconds.
I think we have just got to keep playing good footy because otherwise you will be in the NEAFL.
The inform forward saying the camaraderie isn’t restricted to the May/Lynch household, adding that the entire list had had demonstrated a greater awareness of each others strengths and weaknesses during the later stages of the season whilst displaying the confidence in each other to successfully stick to the game plan laid out for them by the coaching staff.
“Throughout the week Bluey set out a clear plan on how to stop them, so we did our homework on them and I suppose now we can really start to implement the plans.”
“In the pre-season we put in a more defensive game plan and now we are able to implement that game plan and we are starting to gel a lot more, blokes have naturally improved so I guess it’s natural improvement and sticking to the game plan.”
Many of the players celebrating on field and in the GC SUNS dressing rooms on Saturday night were there because they had made the most of their opportunities, elevated from the NEAFL as replacements for injured team mates.
For Lynch it’s a clear sign of the clubs development.
With these injuries it’s starting to show that we have got a bit of depth, at the start of the year, people didn’t think we had that depth and injuries create opportunities and the guys have taken those opportunities and played good footy.
Click here to watch the match highlights from Saturday's win over Carlton!
