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The late setting sunshine of the West will be a welcome relief for the Gold Coast SUNS who have endured a week of unseasonally cold and miserable conditions at home as they prepare for Saturday’s round fourteen clash against the West Coast Eagles at Patersons Stadium.

Assistant Coach Ken Hinkley says that despite the wet weather, the GC SUNS have returned fresh and ready to go following a week off with bye round and are looking forward to testing themselves against the inform Eagles.

“Obviously it’s a long season for every AFL club and it is for us. The boys have had a spell, a little bit of time away and they have come back and trained well since last Thursday. They have done everything we requested of them from that point and now we have the opportunity to go over to Perth and play.”

Despite bookmakers placing the SUNS at a whopping $17:00 to topple the high flying Eagles, Hinkley is adamant the Gold Coasters deserve better odds given their previous performances in Perth.

“Lots of things change in twelve months of football but we do know that last year we went over there and yes we had a slow start, but then for three quarters we competed really well, the effort was there from the boys and if they do that again this weekend for the four quarters, we give ourselves every opportunity to be in the contest.”

The last time the two sides met, the West Coast Eagles scraped home by 21 points, however it was the Gold Coasters who dominated for much of the contest, fighting back after a disastrous start to the match.

For Full Forward Sam Day, the trip West simply provides he and his team mates with the chance to build on the platform they set against North Melbourne in round twelve.

“We know we put in a pretty good effort against North, not good enough obviously, but we’re just looking to improve from there. We know that’s the acceptable level now and we can’t let ourselves go backward from there and we need to keep building on that.”

Jarrod Harbrow (Elbow) and Brandon Matera (Foot) trained strongly today and are likely to board the plane West as part of an extended squad, however a decision on playing the pair will take the field is yet to be made.

“Harbrow is coming off a long injury lay off and we need to weigh up, he is really important to us and we know that we need to get him back in the side as quick as we possibly can but we need to make sure we do that with some control about the situation. Knowing that he is going to be a little bit underdone we might have to look at what we can and can’t do there. Brandon Matera is the same having had a two week break, in fact almost a three week break because he came off early in the last game, we have got to look at all of those situations and say, well can we take all those players.”

Day has overcome his own issues with injury to cement himself in Guy McKenna’s side, the exciting and agile full forward now looking to develop and improve his skills with each outing.

“I’ve just been working on trying to get better every week and I feel that I hit a high point against Port Adelaide and then went down hill from there, but I’ve just got to keep doing what the coaches ask of me and create the contest and play my defensive role as well.

Watch goldcoastfc.com.au from 6.25pm tomorrow night to see who will be named to tackle the West Coast Eagles at 2.40pm on Saturday.