Suns are hungry to end year brightly

GOLD Coast coach Stuart Dew says the Suns are better prepared in their bid to avoid another poor end to an AFL campaign.

With four rounds of the regular season remaining, the 12th-placed Suns are all but out of finals contention after successive losses to Essendon and Brisbane.

Fade-outs have haunted the Suns in recent years. Last season they lost five of their final six matches, and the year before it was six successive defeats to close their campaign.

And that’s not forgetting Gold Coast’s disastrous 2019) season, when the Suns lost

their final 18 games of the year.

However, Dew (pictured) has backed the Suns to finish this season playing good football.

“We’re a year or two older,” Dew said when asked how the Gold Coast could end 2022 on a positive note.

“There’s more drive within the group and there’s a hunger to finish the year really well.

“We’re just set up differently. We’ve got bigger bodies, the maturity’s there (and) we’ve got greater depth.”

Dew also promised the Suns – who host West Coast on Saturday – wouldn’t lack incentive.

“The motivation is to win as many games as possible,” he said. “The next opportunity is this week. That’s been our key to this year – never getting ahead (of ourselves) no matter how many we had won in a row. We’re sticking with our formula.”

Dew wasn’t totally displeased with the Suns’ effort in their 17-point weekend loss to the Lions. “We probably kicked ourselves in the guts a little bit with our ball movement,” the Suns coach said.

Dew was also confident the out-of-contract small forward Izak Rankine would re-sign.

“We’re really confident we’ve got the formula for him to achieve his goals as a player,” Dew said.