Gold Coast will try to mess with Travis Cloke’s head to bring down Collingwood in front of an expected record crowd at Metricon Stadium.
Suns mentor Guy McKenna has likened Cloke to Anthony Rocca as a spiritual leader at the Magpies, believing he held the key to the visitors firing on Saturday.
A long-time former Collingwood assistant coach, McKenna started the mind games on Friday by revealing his defenders would giving the in-form full forward plenty of “advice”.
Cloke has readily admitted in the past his biggest battle is in his own head and early missed set shots have historically set the tone and played with his confidence.
But he certainly is the dangerman for the Suns, entering Saturday’s clash with 19 goals from his past five matches.
“He’s in good form and he’s got a new routine with his goalkicking which we will certainly be reminding him about, hoping it’s going well for him when he’s having his first shot,” McKenna said.
“He reminds me at Collingwood of Anthony Rocca – he was almost the spiritual leader of Collingwood.
“When Anthony Rocca played well, Collingwood played well, and you are certainly starting to see that (with Cloke).
“When Travis Cloke lights up the rest of Collingwood lights up.”
Gold Coast, sitting eighth, are relishing the prospect of a sell-out crowd to watch them duke it out with another top-eight club in what shapes as the match of the round.
The attendance is set to break the ground record of 23,302 when Collingwood came north in 2011.
“It’s showing that in the first few years we had to have the entertainment off the field as they wasn’t a lot to see on the field,’ McKenna said.
“The good thing now is they are coming to see what is on the field which is exciting.”
The Suns also enter the contest with extra confidence after upsetting the Magpies at home last season and also blitzing them in the first half of their final pre-season match before resting the bulk of their midfield.
McKenna has omitted Luke Russell and Matt Shaw following their drubbing by Hawthorn in Launceston.
“Against big bodies some of our lighter bodies get exposed and this is an important game and we want to go in there with (bigger) bodies,” he said.
