Click here to view the image gallery Every club has a pre-season camp. Although a fine tuner of player conditioning, it's also a terrific opportunity to get the players out of their comfort zone away from the weekly grind and gives them an additional chance to unite ahead of a long and a arduous season.

There's plenty of versions of the same thing. Collingwood heads for Colorado for some altitude work. Hawthorn have tackled the Kokoda Track in the past. There's been jungle treks and mountains scaled and desert boot camps.

Although the Gold Coast SUNS have traveled only a few hours north to the Sunshine Coast for its camp, the result promises to be no less gruelling.

Secrecy shrouds much of what's in store for the players, but lets just say there's a couple of absolute certainties - it'll be run with military precision and it's going to hurt like hell.

Even now, with everyone checked into the hotel, kitted up and ready to go, no one has any real clue what's on the menu.

There were plenty of nervous players during the week. A sense of inevitable pain was palpable. Plenty of players were looking for a heads up as to what they'd be in for, but no one found an answer. Michael Coad, at 24 years of age and a relative veteran next to a squad made up predominantly of 19 year olds, probably summed it up best upon leaving training at Carrara on Friday afternoon.

"It'll be great but it'll be terrible,"he said. "To be honest, I can't wait until it's over."

This year the boys will earning their Christmas lunch, that's for sure.

And all along we'll be there for the ride.

Keep an eye out for regular Twitter and Facebook updates. We'll also have plenty of insider information right here on goldcoastfc.com.au.

So stay tuned!