GOLD COAST’S most experienced player says he's seen a noticeable difference among his young teammates since captain Gary Ablett suffered a season-ending shoulder injury.
Michael Rischitelli, a veteran of 174 games and the club's deputy vice-captain, says the Suns are now paying more attention to detail.
Whether it was coincidence or something deeper, Gold Coast seemed to be in a state of shock following Ablett's injury, with poor showings against the Western Bulldogs and Brisbane Lions.
But they got back on track with a win over St Kilda last weekend, and Rischitelli says they are in the right frame of mind for Saturday's crunch fixture against Carlton at Etihad Stadium.
The Suns are currently in ninth place, and a win would go a long way towards setting up a debut finals appearance.
The former Lion said despite being the most experienced player left on the list, he felt no extra responsibility in recent weeks.
"Everyone sees it as a big chance to step up, and they've done it," Rischitelli said.
"Little things around the club, we speak about the little things a lot.
"The last few weeks it's been making sure everyone is on time, doing their extras, doing those basics things, so that when you need that one last effort, you can rely on your teammate to do it.
"The other guys have picked up and made my job easier."
Rischitelli said with the Suns now back in the finals mix, it was important to keep things simple over the final month.
They follow the Carlton game with matches against Port Adelaide (home), Essendon (away) and West Coast (home).
"It was a good to win last week but more importantly we were back to where we want to be in terms of playing our style with contested ball," Rischitelli said.
"It's all about repeating that this week and the results will take care of themselves.
"Carlton is a good team. The last month or two they've slowly started to build.
"They've got some quality ball users in their side.
"At the end of the day, it's all about us. We have to reproduce what we did last week."
