The Suns lost the first six matches of their existence at the Melbourne venue by an average of margin of 71 points, but after two strong victories earlier this season they now love the place.
They humbled North Melbourne by 43 points in round seven, and backed up two weeks later with a 38-point win over St Kilda.
Now, with their season on the line against Carlton on Saturday, vice-captain Tom Lynch says there are few places they would rather be.
"We know the finals is in our hands at the moment," he said.
"If we lose this weekend … it makes it extremely difficult. We've got to go down and knock over Carlton and that's our focus this week.
"We're excited to get down there. Etihad suits us. We've played two good games down there this year."
Lynch said he didn't mind whether the roof was opened or closed for the Saturday afternoon contest.
"It's a hard, fast deck. We managed to use our skills and pace on the outside (in the earlier two matches)," he said.
"It's a pretty big ground so we're able to spread and take the game on."
Earlier in the season the likes of Harley Bennell, Dion Prestia, David Swallow and Jaeger O'Meara were using their pace on the fast surface.
Now the Suns can throw Jack Martin and a returning Kade Kolodjashnij, who is over a hamstring problem, into the mix to take on the Blues.
As well as breaking the Etihad hoodoo, they have now also broken the duck of winning a game without captain Gary Ablett.
Lynch said that after last week's strong win over the Saints, Gold Coast had again focused on a simple game-plan to take on the resurgent Blues.
"We're definitely keeping the same focus on contested footy," he said.
"When we play our best footy we're hard at the footy, we're tackling well. We'll focus on that for the rest of the year."
Lynch refuted the notion that the ninth-placed Suns were running out of legs at the back end of the season.
He said the players took criticism on board from the previous poor losses against the Western Bulldogs and Brisbane Lions and would be full of running for the final month of the season.
"We copped the criticism, we deserved what we got," he said.
"We had to accept it, learn from it as a playing group. We're the players out there, it's not Bluey (coach Guy McKenna) letting us down, it's us.
"We've got to take ownership."
Lynch said Swallow, who will captain the Suns this week, would be fine to play after overcoming a lower leg injury.
Twitter: @AFL_mikewhiting
