Gold Coast SUNS Coach Guy McKenna says he wasn't surprised by the performance of his side despite their two shock wins in the first round of the NAB Cup on Saturday night.
In humid conditions the GC SUNS stunned an experienced Sydney Swans side with a gutsy three-point win before accounting for fellow rookie team Greater Western Sydney by 25 points.
“There was no reason why we shouldn’t have been competitive," McKenna said.
"They [the Swans] had some talented players missing and players playing in different positions, but you can only do what you have to do and we identified our three focus areas before the game and I thought the boys stuck to that.”
It was an impressive night from the fledgling Gold Coast SUNS side, which showed many critics might be off the mark in predicting a certain wooden spoon for the GC SUNS this season.
Several GC SUNS youngsters justified their high NAB AFL Draft selections with performances well beyond their years.
“I thought our structures worked really well, we gave ourselves a chance to work on those structures and I thought the young boys stuck their head over the ball and that’s the main thing,” McKenna said.
“You can have all the game plan and structures in the world, but if you don’t touch the ball it makes it pretty hard.”
McKenna singled out several players for standout individual performances.
“I’d like to say it was a team effort, but obviously David Swallow was great," he said.
"Also, Charlie Dixon, I thought his attack on the play was very good, as well as Brandon Matera, he was looking like a left footed version of Wally [Matera] out there."
McKenna was also pleased with the effort of former NRL superstar Karmichael Hunt and praised the defender’s attitude.
“When I first met Karmichael he was driven, he obviously had a limited skill set but he’s a sponge, he’s like an 18-year-old boy, he takes it all in and that’s the sort of person he is," McKenna said.
“If you’re working with a different sort of person with a different character it would be challenging, but he makes that so much easier because of the person he is.”
McKenna confirmed that skipper Gary Ablett, missing from GC SUNS side due to injury, was again likely to miss next week.
“He [Ablett] was keen to play this week but he got tight and all of a sudden it put this game in jeopardy, so I would think not next week but probably the week after," he said.
