By Michael Whiting
 

Gold Coast SUNS coach Guy McKenna says he does not accept the GC SUNS poor second-half showing against Geelong and will continue to demand excellence from his young team.

The GC SUNS led the Cats by 11 points at half-time at Metricon Stadium but faded badly after the break, conceding the final 11 goals of the match to lose by 66 points.

Despite being delighted with the first half, McKenna was in no mood for backslapping after the match, saying his team needed to toughen up mentally for the rest of the season.

"We understand we have to be patient (but) we can't accept the second half - the way we did fall away - and we need to work on that," he said.

"The first half was good, we need to make the second half better. Physically, we're not going to change the boys a great deal [but] I think we need to talk about the mental side of our game.

"We've got to keep demanding excellence. If you are cutting corners or taking shortcuts, where it gets found out is out there tonight. And you'll get exposed in front of 25,000, in front of your home fans, jut don't do it and you don't want to do it to your teammates.

"Let's learn this now and let's get better quicker. We can't wait for next week or the week after or the end of the season, we do it now. It's all about continuous improvement."

McKenna said the side had to gradually develop its four-quarter intensity and build from the current 60 minutes of quality football, to 90 minutes and eventually to 120 minutes.

He said the GC SUNS stuck to their structures, ran through the lines and used the ball well in the early part of the game, but turnovers and fatigue got to them after the main break.

"I don't think physically the way the boys train we can do any more there, so it becomes a mental thing. So as big as the boys have got physically, we need to start growing the brains a bit and hanging in there longer," McKenna said.

One player the GC SUNS coach was impressed with was Karmichael Hunt, who kicked his first AFL goal and had 12 disposals.

McKenna said he was considering giving Hunt a rest in the reserves to work on his attacking game, but may have to reconsider after the promising showing.

"He was certainly more active in our offensive movement which was really good," he said.

"Some of the passages of play it looked like he'd been playing for 50 years. He's certainly moving forward."