Rodney Eade has found Gold Coast have plenty to learn before they become an AFL power.
The new Suns coach is pleased with his young team's willingness to work hard, but said many players simply do not realise what is required to succeed.
"They don't know a lot in many ways," Eade said.
"That's one thing we've had to talk about consistently.
"(What is) pleasing from that is that the players want to drive that - that they want to train harder.
"They want to get their standards right."
Eade said he has not had to jump on too many players for their attitude.
Rather it is making them realise what is needed in areas as simple as how to approach a warm-up drill.
"When you have so many players all around the same age, it can go one of two ways," he said.
"They can be really slack and just be there for the ride, or they can really want to jump in and work hard.
"Certainly I've noticed our group is the second way ... but they just need some direction."
Eade said his players would need to be in good shape when they return from the Christmas break to continue their pre-season.
At the end of January, the Suns will have an intense three-day camp in the Gold Coast area.
"I don't know why you'd want to go overseas," Eade said of local facilities.
The camp will include a day at the nearby Canungra army base, where Eade once trained when he played for Brisbane.
"It scarred me for life," Eade said.
Meanwhile, Eade said star midfielder Jaegar O'Meara could be ready for round one as he recovers from knee surgery.
But the Suns will take no chances.
"We have really strict guidelines from the surgeon about where he needs to be at certain stages and what he can do," Eade said.
"There's going to be a bit of a plateau now for the next four or five weeks - he's accelerated pretty quickly.
"Everything going well ... they said 16 weeks post-op, he'll be able to play footy.
"So that makes it early to mid-March ... but we won't rush it."
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