TRUE BLUEY ... AFL with Guy McKenna courtesy of the Gold Coast Bulletin

CHALLENGES have come along for our club but the boys should be really proud of the way they handled last week.

Unveiling our new name -- the Gold Coast Suns -- jersey and team song, I had said all along it was really the birth of our club in an AFL sense.

But it was also a great test for the boys.

To come off that high on Thursday and follow it with a win over Sandringham was something they should be proud of.

With all the things that made that week and the club successful, including the promotions and extra hype generated around the club, it was good they could refocus on what they had to do and go through with it.

I have no doubt they were fatigued with the week's events and that probably explained the second-half fadeout.

But mentally it was a great test and they certainly ticked the box.

Playing in the AFL for the first time we will have plenty of those tests next year and it gives us great confidence having seen the dedication of this side and their desire to keep improving.

It's something that has impressed us all year.

Given the time of the year, when it's cold and nasty and halfway through the season, and we're really only an outside chance of making the finals, for them to stay diligent and to stay professional as they have been is a great credit to them.

The physical stuff rolls around but the mental stuff is where it hurts and we can't ask for anything more.

It's particularly impressive when you consider the age of our squad.

There has been a lot of consultation with our high-performance manager Andrew Weller to make sure the balance is right and it's a very individual program at times because some boys develop and mature a lot better than others.

There has to be a balancing act.

But to be developing along the way as boys, and playing against men, the mental and physical challenge has certainly been there in front of us.

Against Sandringham they came up against some fairly chunky, solid boys but our guys handled it quite admirably.

But the challenge is backing up that effort again when we travel to play Geelong this weekend.