Senior Coach Stuart Dew says the SUNS plan to reward impressive reserves form in the coming weeks as Gold Coast prepares for more shortened breaks between games.
After Round 11 on Wednesday, the SUNS will then take on Richmond and Carlton in the ensuing two rounds over nine days.
The club has one of the smallest injury lists in the competition and Dew said that had helped keep the pressure on for senior selection.
“Availability has been fantastic and we’ve made a couple of changes that we’ve forced,” Dew said on the @realty Coaches Chat.
“But in terms of how the players are backing up week, in week out it’s been really pleasing.
“We know some guys have been playing good at reserves level and they’re waiting for their opportunity but we’re asking them to keep going.
“We’ve rewarded some so far and I’m sure some will get rewarded pretty soon.”
Dew said he’d been pleased with how the team had been able to maintain a high standard of football this season with only some minor blemishes.
“If we’re looking at our brand of footy, Round 1 and the GWS game were ones where we thought we were well off in terms of our intensity and where we think our AFL standards should be,” he said.
“Every other game apart from those we think we’ve either been in the game and won it or we’ve lost a couple of close ones as well.
“So we’re trying to learn from those experiences and make sure the next close game we’re in we’re able to close it out.”
The club has another chance to return to the winners’ list on Wednesday against Essendon at Metricon Stadium, but Dew said the SUNS couldn’t afford to turn the ball over as much as in recent weeks.
“(We need to) obviously play a pretty quick brand of footy,” he said.
“They (Essendon) like to link out with hands, they’re really good at that, and play on really quickly.
“So we’ve got to make sure that our execution’s spot on so that we don’t give them too many looks and opportunities to bounce out of our forward 50.”
First bounce is at 7:10pm. Click here for ticketing information.
