The Gold Coast SUNS have today begun full contact training in the lead-up to the announced Round 2 match against West Coast on June 13.

Monday was the first day clubs had the green light to commence full contact training sessions after training resumed last week.

Midfield draftee Noah Anderson said it was exciting to be back with the full group for the first time.

“It was great, it’s something you definitely miss training in pairs and being able to get that contact back was great today,” Anderson told SUNS Media.

“(We just did) an intro to tackling so we did a bit of in tight work like two on one, one on one and three on two, that kind of stuff.”

Last week players were forced to train in small groups of seven to eight to comply with the AFL’s return to training protocols.

Despite being isolated from the remainder of the list, Anderson said the smaller group size did have its benefits.

“We found those training sessions really beneficial,” he said. 

“You touch the ball a lot more times in little groups so we felt we were travelling pretty well and getting a lot out of it.”

With two contact sessions per week until the season resumes, Anderson said the focus would be to develop mentally as well as physically in gameplay scenarios.

“(We need to) get that game awareness and game sense back up,” he said.

“You can’t do it in twos and small groups so it’s just getting those patterns back and that awareness of the game and getting back into it.”