UTILITY Shaun Burgoyne says Hawthorn travel to the Gold Coast for Saturday night’s game ready for a tough encounter against the rising Suns.

The Hawthorn star has marveled at the improvement shown by Guy McKenna’s team in the opening three rounds, where they’ve beaten Richmond and Brisbane.

He says the Hawks are under no illusions about what to expect from the young Suns team at Metricon Stadium.

“We’re not taking this game lightly at all,” he told hawthornfc.com.au

“Their young players are developing nicely – it’s definitely a danger game for us.”

Gold Coast have won six of their past eight matches at home and Burgoyne says travelling to Queensland to play the up-and-coming side is a daunting challenge.

“We haven’t played too many games up there in the past couple of years, so it’s definitely something new to a lot of the boys here those hot and muggy conditions,” he said.

“They’re getting good crowd numbers up there by the looks of things and you can just see the confidence in the group is growing.

“We are under no illusions – it’s going to be a very tough game up there, very physical with a lot of hard running as well.”

The utility says playing on the Gold Coast is about much more than battling your opposition, but also the difficult conditions that come with the tropical weather.

But he says it is a challenge the Hawks are well prepared for following a horrid week of rain in Melbourne.

“We have to push through the pain barrier in terms of playing in the heat and it’ going to be one of those games where we think it’s going to take a lot longer than a quarter or two to blow them away, it’s going to take the entire four quarters to get the victory,” he said.

“It’s been wet and slippery in Melbourne so we’ve had good practice with the slippery-ness of the ball and each other.

“Hopefully the heat doesn’t affect us too much but we’re coming out of pre-season, which was very hot as well so it’s going to be an exciting challenge.”

While taking on Gary Ablett in the midfield is one of the biggest challenges in football, that task is now all the more difficult given the rise of Gold Coast’s young stars.

Dion Prestia, David Swallow and last year’s Rising Star winner Jaeger O’Meara are three of the league’s best youngsters.

Burgoyne says that has been where their improvement has come from, the confidence their young players now have in their more hardened bodies.

“It’s the same thing here with our younger players, they get another pre-season under their belt, another year in the gym where they get stronger and more confident within their bodies and that’s exactly what their younger guys are doing,” he said.

“When you have a leader like Ablett as well, he leads the way for them – they’re only going to get better.”

The Hawks are in outstanding form themselves though, coming off a 58-point victory over Fremantle last Friday night.

Hawthorn’s first half was outstanding, and led by as much as 70 points in the third term before the Dockers hit back late.

Burgoyne says the first half was exactly the way Coach Alastair Clarkson wants his side to play.

But there is still room for improvement.

“Last Friday was the first time we were able to put almost four quarters together,” he said.

“The first half of footy was the way we want to play, the way we want to move the ball and pressure them.

“Players were able to play their role to the best of their ability and when you have everyone doing that, it makes our job a lot easier because we’re not just relying on one or two players.

“From that point of view, we couldn’t have been happier with the first half but from the second half, we still have some things to work on.”