Gold Coast Coach Damien Hardwick could hardly have had a more enjoyable start to his season, with boom recruit Christian Petracca best on ground in his first outing for the SUNS.

They kicked seven goals in both the first and third terms, repeatedly forcing turnovers in the front half of the ground and converting them into scores.

“Any time you’re up by 85 points against one of the best sides in the competition for the last 20 years, you’re always thinking we’re going ok,” Hardwick said.

“The contest and defence at the back end of the third quarter was as good as I’ve seen since my time here.

“There’s a reason we went after him (Petracca).

“His ability to win the ball forward of centre, use the ball well forward of centre is exactly the reason we wanted to bring him to the footy club.

“He’s only going to get better.”

Despite still missing Brownlow medallist Matt Rowell (finger) for at least two more matches, Hardwick faces some difficult selection decisions ahead of Gold Coast’s next game against West Coast.

Jamarra Ugle-Hagan kicked five goals in a VFL practice match against Southport earlier on Friday to put his hand up to face the Eagles.

“He was jumping at the ball, contesting the ball, contesting at ground level, a chase tackle too, which was great,” Hardwick said.

“There’s no-one dying to get him in the side more than me, but what I want to make sure everyone understands is that I see this guy as a long-term prospect for our footy club so we want to make sure we have him absolutely cherry ripe so when he comes in, he’s ready to go.

“When he’s ready to go, we’re going to unleash him.

“It was a big step forward for him.”