GOLD Coast coach Rodney Eade will have to be patient as he fights for a contract extension, with CEO Mark Evans prepared to let the season play out before addressing the veteran coach's future.
Eade is out of contract at the end of this season and faces an uncertain future, but stirring back-to-back wins have reignited the Suns' year and elevated them into the finals mix.
While Eade's future is not tied to a finals finish, Evans said positive results in the second half of the season would help the prospects of the club's coaching group, with many assistants and football staff also coming out of contract.
"My view is always let football shine for as long as you can … having only seen the nine or 10 matches myself so far I'd rather let it play out," Evans told ABC radio at the weekend.
"It's a little bit like players out of contract and you say to the players, 'The best of everything for you happens with good performance, so go and concentrate on the job that's in front of you'.
"The performances at the start of this year have jumped around a little bit. Across the rest of the year, hopefully we can settle that down a little bit."
Evans, who was speaking ahead of the Suns' 16-point win over Hawthorn at the MCG, said he had held talks with Eade about the club's long-term list and football department plans.
While finals are a possibility for the club in an even season, he said there were more immediate concerns for the club to address to make sure they stayed in top-eight contention later in the year.
"We've shown glimpses of very good and glimpses of terrible. In one game we showed it in the same game," Evans said.
"I was very pleased for last week (against West Coast). The Geelong game and the West Coast game are the two that we feel like we've fought it out … I think that was a very good response."
The Suns also have list management issues to address as co-captain Steven May comes out of contract and dual Brownlow medallist Gary Ablett contemplates his future.
Evans was hopeful Ablett, who requested a trade back to Geelong late last year, would see out his contract with the Suns until the end of 2018 after suggesting he could retire at the end of this season.
"He has a contract, and my hope is that he wants to continue playing football and that's for the Gold Coast Suns," Evans said.
The CEO appeared confident May would re-sign with the Suns after the key defender attracted significant interest from Victorian clubs.
"We've had a lot of discussion or questions being asked of us about Steven over the last two months, and in the last month I haven't been fearful about where the discussions with Steven would go," Evans said.
"We're still not done and hopefully that's not too far away.
"Hopefully that is then something that everybody else at the club can see as a really important step to where we want to go."
