Speaking with Brandon Matera this morning and it’s easy to gauge just how much the historic first win at Metricon Stadium meant for the GC SUNS players.
“Awesome really, it was good to get our first win at home it’s been quiet a while, we have played some pretty good footy there this year and gone very close in a couple of them and yeah it was good just to get a win there.”

The Club’s website and social media platforms continued to receive congratulatory messages well into the early hours of this morning and after coming so close on so many occasions, the thirty point win over GWS meant plenty to those on field and in the stands.
Yeah it was awesome, to have the whole team in there, most of the board was in there and some of the staff so it was a good feeling.The fact that it was GWS certainly meant plenty to the twenty two selected to play on Saturday with the Club’s round seven slip up a definite motivating factor.

“To beat GWS, they got us the last time and we remembered that feeling losing to them and we took that into the game.”

As they arrived at training this morning the GC SUNS players faced footy’s great realities in that last weekend’s victory will mean little if they are anything less than competitive against the fourth placed Hawthorn Football Club.

Hopefully it gives us the confidence to go out after another win, we have a tough challenge this week but it will be a good learning curve and we will go out there and try our best and see what we can do.“It’s certainly going to be tough, we have got a couple of players out, but we did it on the weekend without them so yeah we will go in open minded and hopefully we can challenge them.”

While they were far from perfect during their Giant killing performance, there was significant improvement in key areas of focus for the GC SUNS as they look to finish 2012 on a high.

“Our third quarters are the quarters that have let us down and that was our best quarter on the weekend and so that’s a positive out of that game and hopefully we can play the four this weekend.”
A lot of the younger guys stepped up on the weekend and shared the possessions around which was really good, it was a real team effort. Personally Matera has been in sparkling touch over the last month and a half and says despite a number of significant injuries to key players, the 2012 team are in much better condition in comparison to their inaugural year in the AFL.

“We have definitely run out the season better this year than last year, I think we are playing better footy and staying in the games a lot longer than last year.”

The Gold Coast SUNS play Hawthorn at the MCG this Sunday from 4.40pm. Join Jess Skarrat and the SUNS TV team as they deliver all the pre-game action on Seven Mate from 4.00pm.