Gold Coast coach Guy McKenna reckons his AFL players are still “little dune buggies” playing against tanks.

But he’s adamant the Suns improved in their second season which returned the same as the first – three wins.

“Quite clearly we did,” McKenna said.

“Our percentage is generally a good marker of defending the ball well and attacking, and that moved up from last season.

“We won more quarters than we did last year.

“And quite clearly, we did that on the back of most of our grunt work and heavy lifting being done by our second-year players.”

The Suns’ second season was cruelled by injury, mainly to a shallow senior core, and ended on Saturday with a 91-point loss to finals-bound Adelaide.

But McKenna said with nine players hopefully reaching the 50-game milestone next year, Gold Coast would take further steps forward in their third season.

“Experience, yes. Another pre-season, most definitely,” he said of what was needed.

“You saw today … it just physically looks like the M-1 tanks playing the little dune buggies out there.

“We can compete to halftime.

“I think they (Suns’ players) have got the smarts to compete, but just that physical and contested brand of footy that Adelaide play – that is why they’re playing finals football.”

To help, the Suns have lured Adelaide’s fitness coach Stephen Schwerdt.

“We have had two years of a very measured program,” McKenna said.

“We’ll get Stephen Schwerdt up to Gold Coast next year and his experiences will say that we’re going to take another step physically, and that will enable our boys to compete for longer.”