Damien Hardwick says his side are better placed to attack the back half of the AFL season than in previous years.

The SUNS return to the Gold Coast on the back of two impressive wins against the Western Bulldogs and Hawthorn in Darwin, taking a 7-2 record into Sunday’s Round 11 clash against Euro-Yroke (St Kilda) at Marvel Stadium.

Hardwick’s side have fallen in its matches following the annual Darwin stint in the last two seasons – both against Carlton – but he is backing his troops to continue their fine form in Melbourne.

“History would suggest after the Darwin leg that we have struggled a little bit with regard to our performance afterwards,” Hardwick said.

“But I think our guys are further advanced than what they were this time last year with a greater understanding of what's required at the required times.

“Alex Rigby and his crew have done a great job of getting us fit, able and ready to go. And now it's up to us as a football department to make sure we perform.

“We've got a big challenge this week against the Saints at Marvel who were really disappointed in their performance last week versus West Coast.

“We understand that Ross (Lyon) is an outstanding coach. They're well drilled. It's going to be a hard game contest wise.”

The SUNS find themselves perched inside the AFL’s top four nearing the midway point of the season, but Hardwick says they are simply honing their focus on “the next shift” and know there’s still plenty of improvement to be had.

“We've got some parts of our game that we're doing really well, but there's also some areas that we need to address and make sure we get better.

“We've played some really good sides in the last couple of weeks that showed up a couple of things that we really need to tighten up on. We went to work on that over the course of the last 10 days.”

Sunday’s clash concludes the second weekend of Sir Doug Nicholls Round, with the SUNS extended squad containing five of the club’s Indigenous stars in Sean Lemmens (Tiwi), Daniel Rioli (Tiwi), Joel Jeffrey (Wulwulam/Kukatj), Malcolm Rosas Jnr (Rembarrnga/Ngalakan) and Ben Long (Anmatjerre) for the second weekend of Sir Doug Nicholls Round. 

The final team will be confirmed on Friday evening.