Brisbane Lions great Alastair Lynch has hailed the impact of Damien Hardwick at the Gold Coast Suns as they look to continue their run in the finals.
The Suns will face the Lions at a sold-out Gabba in a sudden-death semifinal on Saturday night.
It will be the first Q-clash contested in a finals series.
After reaching the finals for the first time this season, the Suns showed they were not overawed by the bigger stage when they defeated Fremantle by a point in Perth last weekend.
Lynch said Hardwick deserved praise for instilling self-belief in the Suns, who entered the AFL in 2011.
Patient Gold Coast Suns fans rewarded
He likened Hardwick’s presence to Leigh Matthews’s role as Lions coach when the club reached the finals in his first season in charge.
The Lions made the preliminary finals in 1999, two years before winning the first of three consecutive premierships.
“Damien Hardwick would make them (Suns players) believe,” Lynch said.
“It was exactly the same when we had Leigh Matthews in our first finals.
“He says something and you’re convinced, so they’d have enormous belief, the Suns.”
The Suns beat the Lions in the most recent Q-clash.
Playing on the Gold Coast, the Suns thrashed the defending premiers by 66 points in round 20.
“They’ll (Suns) come up the road thinking they’ve had their first final, first win, and now they face their biggest rivals,” Lynch said.
“They should come up confident, especially because six weeks ago they rolled them.”
The Lions fell to Geelong in a 38-point defeat in their qualifying final at the MCG.
The winner of Saturday night’s encounter will play Collingwood in a preliminary final at the MCG next weekend.
AAP