NO ONE is quite as blunt or quite as honest as Michael Rischitelli, so it was no surprise when he had a one-word answer on how to keep Tom Lynch at Gold Coast beyond 2018.

"Win," the veteran midfielder said.

Lynch is the most sought-after free agent this year and having already indicated he would not make any decisions until the back half of the season, his future is set to be an ongoing storyline for the Suns.

While others have talked about the contract length, the size of offer or the club culture, Rischitelli boiled it down to something very simple.

"Win. If we can win, it'd be helpful," the 32-year-old said on Wednesday.

"Everyone knows the history with our footy club, and we need to win, that's the bottom line."

The "history" he talks of is losing players, rather than recruiting them, with Jaeger O'Meara (Hawthorn), Dion Prestia (Richmond), Gary Ablett (Geelong) and Adam Saad (Essendon) all departing in the past 16 months.

The Suns are yet to make finals after seven seasons in the AFL, and with Lynch, 25, entering his prime as a player, he is desperate to achieve success.

Rischitelli is coming off a tough 2017 himself, fighting back from a ruptured ACL suffered the previous season.

He said new coach Stuart Dew had a big bearing on deciding to play another season.

"There's definitely moments that went through my head whether to continue to go for another year," Rischitelli said.

"I had a pretty big discussion about it and I was fortunate to get another year and I want to make the most of it.

"Getting Stuey in here, it's that fresh face and new ideas, that was the main point.

"If I could just get over the first few months of a gruelling pre-season, I know if you can get past that, you set yourself up for a good year."

Rischitelli has 215 games behind him, mostly in the midfield, but is set for a change of role, possibly as soon as Sunday's JLT Community Series opener against Geelong in Townsville.

Dew has trialled the hard-nut at half-back in the past few weeks, including Friday's intra-club hit-out in the wet at Carrara.

"The last eight weeks for me personally has gone really, really well, getting through and slowly improving with running and everything else.

"Personally, I feel like I'm in a good position to have a good year."