Gold Coast's infinitesimal finals chances could be snuffed permanently in Tasmania on Saturday when Hawthorn look to mark skipper Ben McEvoy's 250th match with victory.
The 33-year-old Hawk brings up the milestone in just his sixth game for the year, following a fractured neck he admits has him considering his playing future past this year.
But first he'll celebrate his accomplishment against a Suns outfit two games out of the top eight and needing a minor miracle to reach finals for the first time.
McEvoy, who is out of contract at season's end, admitted he's unsure if he'll play on in 2022.
"When you get to this age, there's two sides of it, how does it look for me but also how does it look for the club?," he told reporters.
"I've never been a big fan of living in Melbourne so there's always that pull to go back to the country ... there's lots of factors that go into it.
"Once you get to the other side of the side of 30 every game is a bonus and don't take anything for granted.
"I did have to consider I might not be able to (return from the neck injury) but once I had an understanding of the likely recovery, I was pretty determined to get back."
The Suns bounced back last weekend after effectively blowing their finals chances with consecutive losses to Essendon and Brisbane, but only just fell over the line by beating West Coast by three points.
They regain Alex Davies and Brandon Ellis at the expense of dropped duo Rory Atkins and Oleg Markov, while the Hawks lose Changkuoth Jiath (suspension) and Mitch Lewis (knee).
They've recalled Denver Grainger-Barras, Jai Serong and Jarman Impey.
For McEvoy, the driving motivation isn't to ruin the Suns' season once and for all, but for his team to take another step back towards competitiveness.
"It's about us continuing to get better, we're on a journey together and we want to get back to playing good footy," he said.
"It's a really good opportunity for us to play against sides who are probably at their best.
"We saw that last week with St Kilda, their season was on the line, so that's a really good opportunity for our young team to continue to try and prove and test themselves."
