By Michael Whiting

He helped Geelong to three premierships, and now Cameron Ling may have helped struggling Gold Coast SUNS to turn its season around.

The Cats' premiership skipper visited the SUNS rooms before they played Essendon at Metricon Stadium on Saturday night and had some choice words to the young group.

"His whole message was that you had to give yourself to the team," midfielder Karmichael Hunt revealed after the match.

Following a poor first quarter, the SUNS rallied and held a 13-point lead late in the third term before the more experienced Bombers stormed home to win.

But unlike its first two matches against Adelaide and St Kilda, the SUNS had some genuine intensity, winning both the tackle count and clearances.

Hunt, who played his best game since switching codes from rugby league, said Ling's message had an impact.

"I thought everyone played their role," he said.

"There was no individuals out there trying to do their own thing ... and that's probably why we clicked.

"Our performance against St Kilda [in round two] was unacceptable, there was a few blokes that went out there and flew the flag for us, but as a team we let ourselves down so we wanted to come out against Essendon and put a pretty good performance in."

Hunt's performance mirrored that of the team – or perhaps inspired it – as he collected nine of his 16 disposals in the second quarter fight-back.

Not only were his options by hand impressive, but the former league international used his strength to great effect.

A bone-rattling shepherd on Angus Monfries in the last quarter left the Bomber floored.

"One of our values as a team is protection and the two instances there the boys had the ball and I felt I had to protect them and I got a few blokes off their feet which was good," he said.

"I kept it pretty simple in my own head heading into the game and I felt that it worked because purely my focus was to go in and go after it."