THE first team to win a premiership cup will determine whether the initial recruitment strategy of Gold Coast or GWS was the right one, says GC SUNS coach Guy McKenna.

With a 12-month head start on the AFL's 18th club, McKenna said he was still more than happy with the Suns' youth policy that saw them win three games in their first season.

In almost direct contrast, the Giants appear to be taking a more experienced approach to their inaugural list, with former Melbourne captain James McDonald expected to be joined by fellow veterans Dean Brogan, Chad Cornes and Luke Power in the coming weeks.

McKenna said when devising a list from scratch, you had to weigh up short-term pain against long term gain.

"You've got to weigh up whether it's the wins you're after or the development of young kids," McKenna said.

"If we had a couple more mature players we might have won a few more games, but less kids would have got games. David Swallow, Trent McKenzie, all these blokes, and even more so players like Jacob Gillbee who played the final game against Hawthorn, he probably doesn’t play.

"You have to weigh that up. That's the path we've chosen and that's the path GWS has chosen. Whoever holds up the premiership cup first will be proven right."

McKenna said he was not surprised GWS had taken a slightly different approach.

He said like any business, you would expect them to analyse and attempt to improve on a previous model.

McKenna compared it to the AFL's expansion guidelines over the past 25 years.

"It's like the AFL when they dreamt up the rules for Gold Coast coming in," he said.

"They saw what happened with West Coast and Port Adelaide and Fremantle and all these clubs coming in. They couldn't let certain things happen again, so they said here's the new rules and regulations and draft picks and salary cap because we don't want it to happen again.

"We've (Gold Coast) gone through it and GWS have sat back and chosen to do things differently and that's what you'd hope with any organisation, it's continuous improvement.

"That's their opinion. We like to think what we've done is the right way to do it and the proof will be in who gets to hold up the premiership Cup first."

One similarity with both clubs was the acquisition of a rugby league international, with the GC SUNS taking Karmichael Hunt and the Giants nabbing Israel Folau.

McKenna said he could not have been happier with Hunt's impact in his first season.

"The off-field stuff he's ticked all the boxes. You couldn't be happier with some of his work in the community, what he's been able to do and shelter these kids from media exposure," he said.

"On the field you see him like the young kids, slowly developing, from a bash and crash defender but now having the confidence to get after the footy.

"His performance is under a lot of scrutiny and pressure, if you knew him you'd understand it's water off a duck's back, but any other person that had to go through that scrutiny would find it very tough so I think personally he's done a fantastic job to finish the season the way he has."