The competition for round one spots at the Gold Coast SUNS is heating up, with a large number of players fighting for a handful of spots in Rodney Eade’s round one side to take on Brisbane at Metricon Stadium.

That’s particularly true for the team’s defence.

Key pillars Steven May and Rory Thompson will need reliable foot soldiers around them and a number of SUNS fit the bill, including Pearce Hanley, Jack Martin, Jarrod Harbrow, Kade Kolodjashnij, Trent McKenzie, Sean Lemmens, Jesse Joyce and Adam Saad, just to name a few.

For second-year defender Joyce, there’s been a noticeable increase in the standard at training as players look to push their case.

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“It’s going well. The standard at training’s obviously been really high and everyone’s buying into the program so it’s been good and can’t wait to see how the next couple of weeks takes place,” Joyce said.

“The amount of training we’re doing has obviously peaked a bit since last year but the standard that we have at training has lifted also.

“There’s a lot of pressure for spots going into the season, everyone’s working really hard to make sure that they take it.”

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The Palm-Beach Currumbin product is welcoming of the challenge and increased competition for spots, with a goal of cementing a position in the team’s back six his main goal for 2017.

“I think trying to cement a spot within that backline would be a very good thing to try and achieve,” Joyce said.

“Obviously got that 10 games at the end of the year, probably more so due to injury but I felt I learned a lot from that and ended up cementing a spot for a couple of weeks there in the end so looking to do that again hopefully with a lot more competition for spots.”