Effort and pressure.
If the Gold Coast SUNS can bring those two elements to Saturday’s game against Melbourne at Metricon Stadium the scoreboard will take care of itself, according to senior coach Rodney Eade.
After a demoralising 120-point loss to Geelong in round six, the SUNS have bounced back well at training this week and will be looking for a much-improved performance against the Demons.
“They’ve responded very well on the track,” Eade told United Coaches Chat.
“The review was solid. I’ve heard some people say that it was brutal, but it wasn’t brutal. The pleasing thing with the review is that the leaders were able to take that, they were able to challenge each other the players, so that was probably our best review we’ve had.
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“Energy was up Tuesday and certainly trained well today but the proof’s in the pudding so we’ve got to be able to bring that effort and intensity that we had the first three weeks, we’ve got to bring it this week.”
Gold Coast’s kicking efficiency has been well down in the last two weeks with the SUNS running at 53.3% against Geelong and 63.1% against North Melbourne.
While it’s an area of concern, the priority for the 22 players that pull on the guernsey on Saturday is bringing the effort and the pressure.
“Not as much as effort,” Eade said.
“Certainly our kicking the last couple of weeks has been poor so we’ve done a bit of that but it’s more about getting the building blocks right so we’ve got to get our priorities right and it’s about our effort and pressure on the opposition.”
Gold Coast are placed precariously on the ladder at 3-3 and with the likes of GWS (5th), Adelaide (7th), West Coast (6th) and Sydney (3rd) to come in the next five weeks, many are writing off the SUNS’ season already.
However, results so far this season have shown fans to expect the unexpected and if the SUNS can win at least a couple of those games heading into round 13’s bye, anything is possible.
“It’s going to be a pretty even year,” Eade said.
“Every team will have runs with wins and losses at a certain time so if we can hang in there over the next 4-5 weeks, we get to the bye and win two or three of those games, I’ve got no doubt we’re going to get some players back we’ll be right in the mix.”
