Gold Coast's impressive AFL season cleared a major hurdle with Saturday's stunning win over Collingwood.
The Suns' sixth win of the 2013 campaign was their biggest in the club's history, finally knocking off one of the competition's heavyweights.
Inspired by captain Gary Ablett, whose second Brownlow Medal seems even more assured after a 49-possession, two-goal display, the Suns registered a 13.7 (85) to 11.12 (78) victory.
Suns coach Guy McKenna pulled no punches in assessing how vital the seven-point win will be for his young group.
"It's powerful," he said.
"You do that against a good side like Collingwood, it does, it's an injection of confidence and belief.
"That light that was at the end of the tunnel that we couldn't see for two and a half years, is now glowing brighter."
While Ablett was dominant, McKenna said it was the ability of his teammates to support their skipper that gave the most hope for the future.
Seven Suns picked up 20 or more disposals, with teenager Jaeger O'Meara and mercurial talent Jared Brennan kicking three goals each.
McKenna said moving away from being a one-man team was as important for Ablett as it was for the club.
"The support crew are growing up around Gary," he said.
"If we keep loading him up we'll shorten his career. These boys are diving in now and owning the football.
"He's had to do most of it himself and if we can cut him some slack in that area it's only going to extend his career and make us better."
Collingwood's top-four ambitions all but evaporated into the Gold Coast air as the wasteful Magpies failed to turn early superiority into a telling margin.
Travis Cloke missed five shots at goal before finally booting two majors in the third quarter, by which time the Suns were sniffing an upset.
One player who showed a lethal edge was Jamie Elliott, who took a screamer of a mark in the first quarter before kicking his first of two goals but those highlights were few and far between.
Gold Coaster Dayne Beams (34), Dane Swan (32) and Sam Dwyer (31) all picked up plenty of disposals but coach Nathan Buckley admitted there was little positive to take from the defeat.
"Clearly it has ramifications for us," Buckley said.
"What it basically says to us is we've got more work to do.
"There's no satisfaction for us out of that match."
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