What a difference a fortnight makes.
Going into their round-seven clash against North Melbourne, most of the pre-game talk was whether Gold Coast could break their supposed hoodoo at Etihad Stadium.
The Suns scored an impressive 43-point win over the Kangaroos and head south to take on St Kilda on Sunday as overwhelming favourites with the bookies.
It’s just the latest sign of how quickly Guy McKenna’s men are developing into genuine finals contenders.
It probably wasn’t until their trip to the MCG to play Melbourne in 2013 that the Suns went to the Victorian capital with people giving them the slightest chance of pulling off a win – their ninth visit to Melbourne since their inaugural campaign in 2011.
This weekend’s trip could result in the Suns’ third straight win in Melbourne after beating the Roos and Demons already in their five-win, two-loss campaign.
A victory over the 14th-placed Saints would further cement the Suns in the eight.
Forward Tom Lynch concedes these are the encounters Gold Coast need to be winning if they want to be taken seriously by their rivals.
“From day one, we’ve been trying to earn the respect of the competition. We feel that we’re starting to earn that a little bit but we know we’ve got a long way to go before fully earning that respect,” Lynch told AAP.
“Away trips are the one where we need to start playing consistently well. We obviously had a good win against North Melbourne but we were disappointing against Freo (in round two).”
The Suns welcome back 205cm ruckman Zac Smith for Sunday’s clash in what will be his first AFL appearance in almost 12 months after undergoing a knee reconstruction last year.
First-year player Kade Kolodjashnij will not make the trip south as he battles knee soreness from the win over North.
The Saints have had to put a line through defender James Gwilt due to a hamstring strain.
Young midfielder Tom Curren faces the toughest job in footy, widely tipped to be the man given the task of somehow limiting Suns’ captain Gary Ablett’s influence.
And despite the relative ladder positions of the two teams, Lynch says the Saints offer plenty of threat, especially if his teammates buy into the favourites talk.
“We know that if we let our guard down against them, they’ll hurt us,” he said.
“(Nick) Riewoldt’s in such good form and they’ve got a good midfield in (Jack) Steven, (Lenny) Hayes, (Leigh) Montagna so we definitely know they’re going to bring a fight to us and we’re going to have to play good footy to get over the top of them.”