Mac Andrew will turn down the head noise and back his instincts for Gold Coast in the side's defining AFL clash with table-toppers Collingwood.
The Suns (10-5) sit seventh, but with a game in hand on their top-eight rivals, ahead of hosting the Magpies (14-2) on Friday.
A trip to Adelaide to face the third-placed Crows follows, before they take on second-placed Brisbane on the Gold Coast a week later.
The Suns' most dominant fourth quarter in club history - turning a three-point buffer into a 41-point win - against Essendon in Melbourne on Saturday was a timely boost.
But the victory still came with some feedback for 21-year-old key defender Andrew.
North Melbourne champion turned Fox Footy pundit David King led the charge by labelling some efforts against the Bombers and a loss to GWS last month as "casual stuff ... not fight-to-the-absolute-death sort of stuff".
Andrew, who last year signed a multimillion dollar deal to remain at the Suns until at least 2030, hasn't taken that feedback on board.
But, after describing himself as "too man-focused", he said there would be a mindset shift against a Magpies side that will penalise every slip-up on Friday.
"When I play my best it's when I'm not thinking, just doing," he said.
"Recently I've been thinking a lot and my brain's been running crazy.
"So, going out and playing off instinct and gut feel, that's when I play my best.
"It'll be a really good test for me, but the team as well, and if I play my role it helps everyone else out."
The Suns held off a fast-finishing Collingwood to win their corresponding fixture last season.
That victory against the defending champions, who eventually slumped to miss finals, boosted hopes of a maiden finals campaign of their own, but they were quickly extinguished.
A year earlier the Magpies were on top of the ladder when the sides met, the Suns walloped by 78 points in a reality check defeat that spelled the end for former coach Stuart Dew.
"Every week we're getting better and better and better," Andrew explained of their confidence levels.
"This time last year we started to fall away a bit ... we're 10-5 at the moment; it shows the improvements we've made."
He said that, much like his own game, the side was at its best when the football "came naturally".
"(At the start of this season) we already knew the game plan," Andrew said.
"Now we're out there just doing it. Last year ... we said to do one thing and we'd go away from everything else.
"Now I feel like we've got all the tools to go out there and play."
