Gold Coast want to be the AFL "kings of the north".

Damien Hardwick just hopes the Brisbane Lions don't find their missing crown before the teams meet in Sunday's season-defining Gabba QClash.

The new Suns coach fancies his chances either way, but concedes it might not be the best time to face last year's grand finalists.

"Brisbane are coming off a week where they've been put under the hammer a little bit," former Richmond coach Hardwick said of the Lions, who are 0-3 at home this year and 2-5 overall.

Brisbane boast more clearances than any other team this season, rank third in contested possessions and are second in inside-50s per game.

But they are third-last on scoring shots generated and have dropped outside the top five - they sit 13th - in scoring for the first time in six seasons.

"A lot of their KPIs are still very strong; just a couple of areas to get better, which they'll know and we know," Hardwick said.

"He's (Brisbane coach Chris Fagan) the ultimate competitor ... very resolute in what he knows makes a good footy club.

"He'll be bunkering down, doing a power of work to get the side responding; we just hope it's not this weekend against us."

Hardwick has pumped up Queensland's Aussie rules project at every opportunity since heading north and said his first QClash was something "you want to be involved in".

It's in better health after the Suns broke a nine-game losing streak last season, a game remembered for Touk Miller's run-in with Dayne Zorko that left the Lion complaining of a sore groin and landed the Suns star a one-match suspension.

"The game itself was quite spiteful, rough, aggressive and that's the way you want those games to be played," Hardwick said.

"You want it to mean something to the players. We want to be kings of the north."

He can relate to Fagan's challenge, having won three premierships in a four-year span in the back half of a 307-game coaching career at Punt Road.

"They've been playing the same way under Fages for the last five years and it's kept them in good stead," he said.

"They've been a side we're trying to become.

"You've got complete faith in your playing group, but there's also the fact you need to regenerate and rejuvenate at some stage.

"Chris and (football boss) Danny Daly and those guys up there have got a really good understanding of what that is.

"That's them, but we're still trying to find what our best mix is and there's bumps along the way."