GOLD Coast is perfect at its home ground in 2024, and now Damien Hardwick wants to see it break its duck on the road – preferably at next Sunday's QClash against Brisbane at the Gabba.
Despite gifting a number of easy turnover goals against West Coast, the Suns controlled much of their 37-point win, dominating the contest area and roaring to a fourth straight win at People First Stadium.
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Sitting just outside the top eight on percentage after seven rounds, coach Hardwick said it was now time to travel with equal effect.
"That's the challenge," Hardwick said.
"We're four and zip at home, which is awesome, we've just got to make sure we steal one away next week against Brisbane.
"We have to consolidate our wins at home. We want People First to become a fortress for us, but we've got to play a good consistent brand of footy away.
"You've got the Coliseum-type atmosphere where there's 30,000 fans baying for blood.
"Our guys will get a good understanding of that next week and hopefully we can rise to the occasion. I'm sure we will."
Hardwick said his 4-3 team was in a good position to challenge the 2-5 Lions, who he described as a "proud footy club".
"We give ourselves a shot if we play our best footy, but we're going up against a pretty good side."
After conceding the first three goals of the game against West Coast, the home team controlled the areas that mattered, winning contested ball 148-111, clearances 48-31 and inside 50s 67-35 to bankroll victory.
Hardwick said the major area of concern in the first half, when the Suns led by just three points, was their ball movement from defence.
"I've got this stat called 'shit goal' stat and we gave them three in the second quarter, which was really frustrating," he said.
"There was a bit of play in the second quarter where there should have been Benny Hill music playing, the Mac Andrew holding the ball, and those are the sorts of plays we've got to eradicate from our game.
"Against better sides – West Coast are playing some good footy – but they'll punish us even more.
"We're doing a lot of things well. What we've got to eradicate is the turnover goals against, giveaway turnovers. We'll get better."
Although losing the key indicators comfortably, West Coast coach Adam Simpson said there were positives to take from his team's performance, as they were still within three goals with five minutes remaining.
"The last quarter we said 'Let's take it on and see what we can do'," Simpson said.
"That 15 to 20 minutes of resilience was all I needed to see to suggest that they've got some spirit there.
"We've got a heap of work to do - around the contest was not up to scratch.
"We'll definitely look at this as a learning game."
After leaving Harley Reid out of the game to manage the No.1 draft pick's workload, Simpson said he may look to do the same with some experienced Eagles.
He said Elliot Yeo, who was again one of his team's best players with 19 disposals (18 of them contested), eight tackles and eight clearances, was among the candidates to get a rest at some stage.
"We'd love to have played Harley today, but we couldn't," Simpson said.
"His body was telling us we shouldn't.
"Missing one game, but we get him for 22, you'd do it every day of the week.
"'Yeoy' will be the same at some stage, he may need a spell. We just can't rely on Yeo and (Jake) Waterman and Harley and (Liam) Duggan, we need everyone to give a collective effort.
"We've learned some pretty harsh lessons the last two or three years. We're trying to be respectful that we want to win, and we want our players playing as much as they can."
