GOLD Coast Suns coach Cameron Joyce was pleased with his side’s response against Carlton following a disappointing Round 8 loss to Melbourne, getting on top of the Navy Blues to win by 27 points on Friday night. In another home match at Metricon Stadium, the Suns bounced back from a goalless first half to kick six goals to one in the second half and storm over the top of Carlton, 6.6 (42) to 2.3 (15).

Joyce said the playing group’s ability to readjust after trailing 1.3 (9) to 0.3 (3) at half-time was important and come out the other side far stronger.

“The players were really respondent after half-time and I reckon we started to win some contests across the entire ground and that gave us a bit better field position and then we were able to score off the back of that,” Joyce said. To score six goals three in the second half was just a credit to the players, how they were able to adapt a little bit to the conditions and they were able to kick it a little bit more than handball around the contest.”

Describing his emotions as being “super proud” of the group to win a huge contest with finals on the line, Joyce said it all started at the stoppages.

“I think over time we probably wore them down a little bit in there which was great. Plus-33 contested possessions, we got enough ball inside 50 tonight to give ourselves a chance to score,” he said.

“I thought our forwards were really hard to play against after half-time and won some crucial contests. They all had their moments, which I think that’s a sign of a good forward line that everyone’s contributing, and the girls got some reward.”

Defensively Joyce was also pleased, weathering the early Carlton storm and keeping the opposition to just five scoring shots for the match.

“Carlton scored four goals in the first 12 minutes of the game last week against Richmond. We were under no illusion that they move the footy and they like to switch it and move it off the line,” Joyce said.

“We had to be on with that, and I think we’re building our defensive structure. I just said to the players before that all our defenders had some moments about being able to cut some Carlton forays forward off and that was really important about holding them to a low score.”

The victory marked Gold Coast’s fifth win of the season in what has been the Suns’ career-best with finals still a chance depending on what happens with the Western Bulldogs next week.

“The teams that essentially around us we’ve performed really well against. Obviously lost to Richmond by four points,” Joyce said. We know we’ve got to bridge the gap between the top tier teams and I think like I said this week is some of that can be done over the next few weeks but a lot of it can be done over the next eight months leading into the next season with how we can try and bridge the gap with a lot of different elements of our game and individuals as well.”

Given the Western Bulldogs are four points and 19.6 per cent ahead of the Suns, Gold Coast needs to not only win big, but hope the side the Suns just knocked off in Carlton, can roll the Bulldogs in the final round.

“I look at the ladder and I know exactly where we’re at, but at the same time in terms of the message, the message is it’s about what we do, what may or may not happen,” Joyce said. We’ve just got to finish off strong, we wanted to have a good showing tonight which we have, and the next part we move on and review, and move on pretty quickly to the GIANTS. We’ll be watching them closely this week and seeing how they perform and look forward to going to Sydney again as a group and performing well as a group.”