Gold Coast co-captain Touk Miller says new coach Damien Hardwick has been fantastic in his first pre-season with the club.
Hardwick signed a six-year contract with the Suns in August and took over officially at the end of the 2023 season ahead of the draft and trade period.
Having been in the job for almost six months now, Miller says that Hardwick has gone about implementing his system across the summer, one that the Suns have quickly grown accustomed to.
“Yeah look, he’s been fantastic,” Miller told SEN Breakfast.
“It's just, I think for us what's been the biggest piece for the club is just his ability to implement a system.
“I think the detail that's involved in that has obviously required a lot of us to learn and, and educate ourselves.
“It felt like we're kind of starting again, just with the new system. But in saying that, Dimma has been unreal.”
As well as bringing his own go-forward, high-pressure approach, Miller says that Hardwick hasn’t lost sight of what makes the Suns tick and that’s their strong running game.
Miller says it’s been easy to trust the new coach’s message particularly as he joins the club off the back of winning three flags across the last seven years with Richmond.
“He’s got a process on how he delivers it. I feel like we've adhered to that over the pre-season and I think we haven’t lost sight of what we are and that's a really strong running team,” Miller said.
“We're highly engaged in being coachable and I think we've done that really well.
“But Dimma has stepped in and he's got a real whole club approach, he works on a lot of people's strengths.
“Obviously, he's been there and done it before and you have a lot of trust in what he's doing and what he's delivering.”
One thing that Hardwick hasn’t shied away from since joining the club is that he’s expecting the club to play finals in 2024, something that’s been echoed by Chairman Bob East.
While the Suns have yet to feature in September since their 2011 inception, Miller says that the pass mark of finals sits perfectly fine with the playing cohort.
“It sits really well with us,” Miller said.
“We're well and truly aware of what we want to accomplish, and we really want to challenge for finals and obviously the ultimate goal is winning the premiership.
“So, a comment like that, I feel like it doesn't add any pressure that doesn't already come with playing AFL football.
“I feel like as a whole entire football club, we’re fully aware of where we sit, what we haven't done and what we want to do.
“We feel really strongly that we have the right system and the right people in place to give us what we want.”
Gold Coast officially kick off their season when they host Hardwick’s former club Richmond during Opening Round at Heritage Bank Stadium on Saturday, March 9.