We will play our best side: Suns coach rules out rests
Steve Larkin |
Gold Coast coach Damien Hardwick won’t rest players in the AFL’s last home-and-away game ahead of what he hopes is a landmark finals campaign.
The Suns learnt this week their rescheduled match against Essendon will take place on Wednesday August 27, three days after the end for other clubs.
Gold Coast’s clash against the Bombers, postponed from opening round due to a cyclone in south-east Queensland, follows an away game against Port Adelaide on August 22.
Hardwick was unfazed at short breaks between games or the sixth-placed Suns likely entering the club’s first finals campaign with less rest than rivals.
“The season is live, every game is very, very important and obviously with, one, making finals, but, two, then jostling for position within finals,” Hardwick told reporters on Thursday.
“So we have just got to play our best side and give ourselves the best opportunity of finishing as high up on the ladder as we can.
“When push comes to shove, that is always what it is going to be about.”
Hardwick acknowledged growing excitement among his players at the prospect of playing finals, but said it must be tempered.
“Everyone has got aspirations to play in finals and to be a finals-type football club, that is great,” the triple premiership Richmond coach said.
“But at the end of the day, all we can really concentrate on here is next shift mentality and just stay where your feet are.
“That way you stay firmly focused on what you can control right here, right now.
“Players of any football club will always go to the what may be, our players are no different.
“But it’s the side that best handles those distractions and gets back to what they can control is going to go furthest.”
The Suns travel to play Carlton on Saturday night with young forward Jed Walter again unlikely to feature.
Walter was dropped two weeks ago and his replacement Jy Farrar has been an instant hit, kicking five goals in two games.
Hardwick said he was demanding Walter improve his ground-level play.
“His aerial stuff is very, very good for a 19-year-old – it’s elite,” Hardwick said.
“He has got an elite skill set at ground level that I have got to encourage him to use more.
“He effectively is a bigger version than Jy Farrar, I think, his ground ball and chase pressure can rise … and he understands that.”
AAP
