By Michael Whiting

With its second NAB Cup campaign a little more than a week away, Guy McKenna says his young Gold Coast team is growing up fast.

Prior to their debut in the AFL last year, McKenna and his coaching staff had to cobble together a pre-season severely disrupted by injuries and the late assembling of the list.

There were uncontracted player signings, draftees, rookies, pre-season draftees and setbacks to key players including captain Gary Ablett.

It all added up to a short, hurried pre-season.

But the past four months have been like chalk and cheese compared to 2011, and the GC SUNS coach believes the results will speak for themselves.

The GC SUNS have had minimal player movement, a two-week training camp in Arizona and only a handful of injuries to worry about as they prepare for their NAB Cup openers against Melbourne and the Brisbane Lions on February 25.

McKenna said things were coming together smoothly.

"I think the pleasing thing for me and the coaches is, I can't really put my finger on one player (that has excelled during the pre-season)," McKenna said.

"I think there's been eight to 10 of the young kids that have really stepped up. We all understood how David Swallow trained with his intensity and he was probably a standout as a young kid last year, but he's been joined by six or seven of the other young kids.

"[On] our training camp in Arizona, Piers Flanagan, Dion Prestia and Luke Russell for example were three blokes chosen by the group that they thought trained well, so there's three names that you can add to David Swallow, so it's been difficult to pick a standout that's for sure.

"They've pushed themselves. It's easy for coaches and clubs to roll out programs, but the pleasing thing was the boys had a great break, were refreshed, came back in really good knick – their skinfolds were almost better than before they went away – and that shows an element of growing up and professionalism."

Gold Coast SUNS won just three matches last year and finished bottom of the table, but showed more than a few glimpses of potential.

They led premiers Geelong at half-time in one match, matched grand finalists Collingwood in the second half of another and came within two and three goals respectively of top four teams Hawthorn and West Coast.

"The biggest improvement with us has to come from playing longer game time, playing like men," McKenna said.

"(We played) 60 minutes last year and hopefully we can push that out to 90 minutes which will allow us to be more competitive.

"Does it necessarily mean we're going to win more games? No. I'm logical enough to know that as long as we can compete for longer I'm certainly going to be happier and it gives the boys a chance, and who knows, with an ounce of luck the boys will take a win and it'll give the supporters and sponsors great hope going into the season."