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By Michael Whiting
Gold Coast SUNS enforcer Campbell Brown sees similarities between the SUNS and the battling Hawthorn team he played with in his early AFL years.
And he insists that Gold Coast, despite its winless start to the season, is a much better team than 12 months ago.
Brown played 159 games over nine seasons for the Hawks, starting with a struggling unit in 2002 before tasting the ultimate success with the 2008 premiership team.
Since he moved north at the beginning of last year, Gold Coast SUNS have won just three of its 32 matches – and is winless after 10 this season - but Brown is not losing faith.
The defender-cum-forward said it was not dissimilar to the 2003 Hawks, who started poorly before finishing strongly.
They bottomed out with four wins in 2004 and just five in 2005 before beginning their climb back up the ladder.
"I was just saying to a few of the guys, we were 2-8 after 10 rounds in 2003 and we had a much more experienced list than this, with guys like [Shane] Crawford and [Nathan] Thompson and Jonathan Hay and a heap of senior guys," Brown said.
"We've got a young side and we're getting games into them and we're teaching them. It's playing great sides like St Kilda and Collingwood … that you really learn how far you've got to come to not just be a good side, but a good, competitive, premiership side."
Brown said although he was frustrated with the lack of wins on the Gold Coast, he could see improvement.
"We've come a long way. I think we're a much better football side than we were this time last year," he said.
"I know we had a couple of wins by this stage, but we've won more quarters, our ball movement has been more structured and better, [and] the defensive aspect of our game has improved significantly."
Brown said that, like his early days with the Hawks, it was all about learning from the best.
He said being disciplined helped Hawthorn turn the corner in the mid-2000s and he expected something similar to happen at the SUNS.
"You need to do that relentlessly every single contest, not just pick and choose when you do it.
"Then [you need] experience. You need games to work on your craft and understand just how important each role is in a side. I think once everyone gets their head around that we'll make pretty significant improvements in a short space of time."
In the short term though, the SUNS are looking for an improved showing against St Kilda at Metricon Stadium on Saturday – a team that smacked them by 92 points in round two.
Brown described that showing as the worst of the season and expected a significant improvement.
With a six-day turnaround after its 97-point loss against Collingwood on Sunday, the SUNS replaced its usual main training session with a lighter hit-out on Wednesday.
Players broke off into different groups and played a mixture of touch footy, European handball and other ball games.
"The confidence doesn't seem to wane too much," Brown said.
"That's the good thing with young guys, they're really enthusiastic. Monday's a new week and we look forward to a new challenge."
