There are two certainties about Gold Coast's first interstate sortie on Saturday - they will field much the same side that was pummelled by Carlton and they will milk the clock for no reason other than physical preservation.

Gold Coast coach Guy McKenna made those assurances on Monday, saying only injuries would prevent him naming the same 22 for the clash with the Western Bulldogs at Etihad Stadium.

McKenna wants his younger players to become more comfortable with each other's style of play, while allowing experienced stars such as Gary Ablett, Jared Brennan and Campbell Brown to gain vital match fitness after interrupted pre-season campaigns.

"It's about having the group playing as much footy as they can together," McKenna said.

"We came out of the game with no injuries. We would hope most of the boys would be able to play.

"Physically as low as their (senior player) bases are, it's better off getting them in there working with the young kids at senior level than going through the seconds.

"It's about having the game and experience playing alongside each other.

"I want to throw them in the deep end. I do not want to hide them."

McKenna said the Suns needed to become much better at controlling the tempo of matches because they were physically under-done.

He said it was borne out necessity against the Blues and it would happen against the Bulldogs.

"We can't play 120 minutes of AFL football against another AFL club. We just don't have the personnel or the bodies to do that," McKenna explained.

"We have to slow the game down to get the boys through it.

"We have to slow the game down as best we can and we tried to do that on the weekend but Carlton were up and about and we still couldn't hold them.

"It has nothing to do with the scoreboard, it's just physically to get the boys through the game."

In guaranteeing the first round side would remain intact, he has assured code-hopper Karmichael Hunt will play despite labelling his performance against the Blues as "unsatisfactory".

He said only a few players received pass marks for their round one performance.

"We had eight boys that were satisfactory," McKenna said.

"Mind you not too many of our defenders were satisfactory on the night."

Following the loss to the Blues, McKenna and his lieutenants remained in the coaches box for about 20 minutes to dissect the game and he said the tactic is likely to be common practice in the future because it's quiet and without distraction compared to the change rooms.

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