Just five days out from Gold Coast’s season opener against Essendon on Easter Saturday and the excitement levels around Metricon Stadium are reaching fever pitch.
After a long and brutal pre-season campaign under the scorching Gold Coast sun, the quest for premiership points is finally upon us and for young gun Touk Miller, all the signs at SUNS HQ are promising.
“The change rooms are feeling great, everyone’s really positive, we’ve got a full list pretty much walking back in for round one,” Miller told SUNS TV on Monday.
“Everyone’s really keen to get started and to implement our game plan for four points so it’ll be good.”
READ: Miller declares faith in club's ability to make finals
The SUNS completed their pre-season competition with its star quartet of midfielders in Gary Ablett, Dion Prestia, David Swallow and Jaeger O’Meara, all failing to register an appearance.
However their absence saw the continued emergence of the club’s next crop of midfielders with Miller, Aaron Hall, Michael Rischitelli, Matt Rosa and Mitch Hallahan all tallying 20+ disposals in NAB3 against Adelaide.
With Ablett and Jesse Lonergan both set to be available for this Saturday’s game, Gold Coast appears to have some real midfield depth in its ranks heading into the 2016 season.
“I think it just goes to show our list is improving every minute,” Miller said.
“So over the pre-season games we really had a lot of players roll through the midfield and it just goes to show leading into round one we can play a lot of people through there.
“Especially with the 90 rotations, it’s going to be pretty handy having a lot of people that can roll through the midfield and chop out for some of the bigger names so it’ll be really good.”
The motto for round one is simple, according to Miller.
READ: SUNS looking for strong start
Bring the effort and the results will take care of themselves.
“We’ve just got to bring what we’ve done in the whole NAB Cup and pre-season. That’s been a lot of effort, pressure and work rate,” Miller said.
“I think that’s probably going to put us over the line for round one.
“So if we bring that, I think we’ll be there.”