There is absolutely no sense of panic or extra urgency on the Gold Coast as Guy McKenna’s charges prepare for their final pre season hit out against the Sydney Swans this weekend.
That's the view of Karmichael Hunt, as the GC SUNS edge closer to their second season in the AFL.
Speaking in Melbourne on Tuesday, where he was announced as an AFL Australia Post Multicultural Ambassador, Hunt said GC SUNS coach Guy McKenna had kept the past fortnight in perspective.
"I don't think 'Bluey' is concerned. What went wrong is easily fixable," he said. "I don't think there needs to be too much more emphasis at training on working on our skills. Whatever needs to be fixed is easily fixable."
Nevertheless, Hunt admitted to not enjoying either of the score lines during the past fortnight.
At home against the Cats two weeks ago, the margin was 49 points while in Lavington on Saturday, the Giants prevailed by 13 points despite the Gold Coast SUNS dominating for much of the encounter.
"We hate losing. It's only the pre-season but it's competition and we'd like to win," he said.
The GC SUNS return to New South Wales on Saturday for a clash against the Sydney Swans at the Blacktown International Sports park. And Hunt expects McKenna to pick a team as close as possible to full strength.
"We want to put in a really strong performance before the start of the season, but at the end of the day we want to be ready for round one."
"We'll start again this week against Sydney and then have an extra week of really good preparation before we start with the real stuff," he said.
Meanwhile, despite his standing as an elite performer across three codes of football, Hunt said he is no closer to understanding how much football is enough over the course of a pre-season.
"It depends on the individual," he said. "For someone like Gary Ablett I guess it would be a set number minutes, but from my point of view it's games. It's very individualized from that point of view.
"The key thing is that by round one, you have a team that is familiar and knows how to play with each other."
SUNS on right track
There is absolutely no sense of panic or extra urgency on the Gold Coast as Guy McKenna’s charges prepare for their final pre season hit out against the Sydney Swans this weekend.