WITH Gold Coast's lead down to one point late in the third quarter against Fremantle on Saturday night, and its grip on the four points loosening, it needed some inspiration.
It came, but not in the manner we usually associate with being inspired.
Dockers defender Griffin Logue was cornered in the back pocket following a mark and Nick Holman was doing what he always does – "getting to the mark and pushing the defender back".
When Logue was called to play on, Holman pounced, smothering the left footed kick over the boundary line and forcing a throw in.
From the resulting stoppage, Matt Rowell kicked his second goal and gave the SUNS some breathing space.
"Five or six boys came over and it makes you feel really good about yourself and that you're playing your role," Holman said.
The 25-year-old is possibly the most under-rated player on Gold Coast's list and maybe one of the most under-rated in the competition.
He's averaging just nine disposals a game this season, but his teammates and coach absolutely love him.
With the verve of Ben King, Ben Ainsworth and Alex Sexton alongside him, Holman provides the grunt to balance the ledger.
He does the dirty work; the smothers, the chasing, the blocks, as he says, "the things that don't show up on stats sheets".
Incredibly, that play late in the third term wasn't even his best effort of the night, that came just prior to half-time - coincidentally in the lead-up to Rowell's first goal.
In that instance, Holman chased three Fremantle defenders as each one shifted the pressure on to his teammate, eventually smothering the kick of Nathan Wilson.
In the following passage, Rowell snapped truly on the left foot.
"He's the most unselfish player," coach Stuart Dew said.
"He'll do anything for the team.
"We don't measure his impact on his touches … he's good with ball in hand, but his pressure and hurrying up opposition defenders is what we look for.
"He had two really key smothers on the weekend that led to goals, and when you win a tight game, that's the value of Nick.
"He can influence a game with his defensive pressure and not many players can do that."
Gold Coast gave Holman a second chance in the AFL prior to the 2018 season after he'd previously played nine games with Carlton across 2014-2015.
Coinciding with Dew's first year in charge, Holman quickly became one of the coach's favourites.
"You wouldn't know whether the Suns are 10 goals up or 10 goals down, he plays the same way," Dew said.
"You just know what you're going to get when his magnet goes on the board. He just gets stuff done."
In the round two upset of West Coast, he had six touches and kicked one goal, but was rated among the best handful of Gold Coast players on the ground by his teammates.
"I've always been a defensive player, even as a junior with my tacking," Holman said.
"Whatever the coach needs me to do, I do.
"You can't go past a rundown tackle or a smother when all the boys get around you.
"First off is intensity … and then ripping tackles. I want to pressure the opposition as much as I can and hopefully that can help us on offence as well.
"I try to keep it pretty simple with intensity and pressure.
"All the defensive acts to get the team going really excite me and excite our forward line."
That sums up Nick Holman.
Next time you watch a Suns game, watch what the No.39 with the shaggy hair and rugged look does when the ball is not in his hands.
It might just win his team another stoppage, another disposal or even another game.
