ASSISTANT coach Ben Mathews believes the Gold Coast Suns will be a different outfit at the MCG this Sunday, compared to when Melbourne beat them by 73 points up at Metricon Stadium in round seven.
The stoppage and contest coach said the Suns have regained some key personnel and will be a tough opponent on the weekend.
“You’re certainly confident when you’ve [previously] beaten a team, but they’re a little different up forward. Their big boys up forward in [Tom] Lynch, [Peter] Wright and [Sam] Day are playing really, really good football. They’re marking just about everything that comes into their area,” he told Melbourne TV.
“So we need to keep restricting that inside 50 rate for them, but also, they’re a lot stiffer defensively as well. [Sam] Day and [Rory] Thompson didn’t play in that early season game, so they’re a lot stiffer in defence.
“Yes, they’re inexperienced through the midfield, but they’re hungry and they’ve got some talent. We know they’ve got some talent and they’ve got speed, so we know if we don’t win the ball in the contest, it puts our defenders under real pressure with those forwards.
“It’s a big challenge for us. We go into this contest fully prepared and wanting to win.”
Reflecting on last Saturday’s six-point loss to the West Coast Eagles at Domain Stadium, Mathews said there was plenty to take away from the review of the match.
“We felt we had a super, strong performance against the Eagles. They’re a top, quality side on their home patch and we kept them to 37 inside 50s and we had 66, so we did a lot right, but we didn’t win the game.
“There is no doubt if we bring that level of effort, contest and method through the game – we’ll win a lot more than we lose. But the fact of the matter is that we didn’t win and we’ve got another opportunity this weekend against the Gold Coast at the MCG, so we’re looking forward to that.”
“We’re a young side and an inexperienced side, so the way we handled the trip over to Perth, and our preparation and execution on how we planned to play was outstanding. To win almost every category of stats – apart from the scoreboard was super impressive.
“But that’s the next step for this group – taking a step back and understanding we played well, but we want to do more than that and we want to win. We know that’s what the fans want and our players are really driven to win as well, so hopefully we’ll get that chance this weekend.”
