Gold Coast will be keen to "rectify" their shock loss to Richmond earlier this season with a percentage-boosting win on Saturday afternoon, as a number of key troops become available for selection.
Senior coach Damien Hardwick confirmed that Alex Davies will remain in the AFL side this week after a dazzling performance against the Lions, where he recorded a career-high 30 disposals and nine score involvements in his season debut. Hardwick has looked to reward his efforts while several players knock on the door for a senior call-up.
"Alex will play, he was outstanding last week," Hardwick told media on Thursday.
"The great thing about Alex is now he has a template about what his AFL game could look like. It was against one of the best sides in the competition, he can play the game.
"Our job as coaches is to sit there and get Alex to understand that's the standard you can produce on a weekly basis. He's a wonderful player... unfortunately at stages, he's got injured or suspended and he hasn't had continuity in his performance. We're looking forward to him hopefully starting to rise above that level."
Star midfielder Touk Miller and 2023 draftee Will Graham are set to return from injury this week as well, posing Hardwick a tough yet welcome selection dilemma.
Miller has missed two matches since suffering a hamstring strain against Collingwood in Round 18, while Graham hasn't featured since Round 9 due to a shoulder injury.
Hardwick was confident the pair could make an instant impact if named on Thursday night.
"Both [Miller and Graham] are available for selection, provided they get through training," Hardwick said.
"We're really positive those guys will both get through. We've pencilled in a side and what that looks like.
"Obviously, Touk has missed a couple, and Will's missed a significant amount of footy, so I've got to resist the urge to place his magnet where I want it to be. We'll work through that this afternoon.
"What we do know is that they're two very important players to the way we play. Will Graham is probably one of those guys a lot of people outside our four walls haven't heard of, but we rate him that highly.
"There's things in his game that are intangibles that make us a better side just by having his magnet on the board."
In fact, those intangibles were evident when Graham sustained his shoulder injury, making a brave play on the ball to prevent the Bulldogs from taking possession in the final minute of the game.
The moment was pivotal to the Suns holding on to maintain their impressive undefeated streak in Darwin. Hardwick highlighted how that mentality is crucial heading into the contest with Richmond.
"Every game has its unique challenges. One thing that comes to mind is, in Round 6, we were incredibly disappointing in this game," Hardwick said.
"We spoke to our players about what that looked like last time and the mistakes that we made. We're always looking to grow from experience, as I said previously, losses are a gift.
"We're looking forward to taking those experiences that we were underperforming in to make sure we rectify those.
"Richmond are playing the best footy I think they've played throughout their time under Yze at the moment. We've got a really strong understanding about what their identity piece is, and we've got to make sure we try to stifle that as best we can."
