Gold Coast midfielder Dion Prestia wants the AFL club to end its breakthrough campaign with a bang to give it momentum heading into 2014.
The Suns made the most of a fast finish to last season when they defeated St Kilda in the opening round of this year’s campaign.
From there the club hasn’t looked back, picking up seven wins and flirting with the possibility of finals football.
Despite that impressive effort, Prestia is warning his teammates to not undo their good work in the last two games of the season.
The Suns tackle the Saints at Etihad Stadium this weekend in Prestia’s 50th AFL appearance before wrapping up their year against basement team GWS at home on September 1.
Prestia says the Suns should expect to win both games and give themselves momentum for another improved effort next season.
“We want to finish off this year well because we finished off last year really well and it built into this year,” he said.
“Hopefully we can repeat that.”
Prestia has emerged alongside fellow midfielders Harley Bennell and Jaeger O’Meara this year to ease the pressure on captain Gary Ablett.
He feels Ablett is now in a situation where he doesn’t have to influence everything the Suns do and can focus on drifting forward to hurt teams on the scoreboard.
“We still obviously like Gary in there,” Prestia said when asked if Ablett was still needed in the club’s midfield.
“Now that a lot of the midfielders have played a lot of games he probably feels he doesn’t have to be in there as much.
“He knows if he sits forward we’re going to get the ball down there.”