NOAH Anderson was only 23 years old when he was appointed captain of Gold Coast ahead of the 2025 season.

At that point, the Suns were still on their seemingly endless quest to qualify for their first finals appearance, and for those outside the club's bubble, the choice of the young Anderson to take over from Jarrod Witts seemed somewhat left-field.

But 2025 proved to be a transformative season for both the team – which not only played one final, but two – and the player, with Anderson polling 25 votes in the Brownlow and averaging career-high disposals (30.1) and clearances (7.0).

"There's been a little bit of change as to how the outside's looking at us, and the expectation, but from the inside, it's all the same. We want to continue to get better and improve, and we feel like there's parts of our game where we need to bridge the gap with the best. We've put a lot of time into doing that this pre-season," Anderson told AFL.com.au.

"You have to back yourself in as a leader. I think the club put me in a really good position where they had the confidence in me that I'd make the right calls, and I think I could really rely on the people around me. I think the biggest thing for me is putting trust in others and having good people around me to make my job a lot easier.

"From a staff perspective, Alex Rance does a lot of our leadership stuff, so he's been a great one to bounce off, and I continue to do so. Last year, I was lucky enough to still have Dave Swallow there, still have Jarrod Witts, those guys who have been (previous) captains of the club for a long time. I continue to bounce off them or get feedback when I need it or different opinions when I need it, which is more often than not."

As with most elements of football, leadership is often a work-in-progress, and one of the lighter captaincy duties is the ever-important coin toss.

Anderson had to quickly jump on top of a fast-developing narrative after a disastrous defeat at the hands of reigning wooden spooners Richmond in round six.

"Last year, I had lost every coin toss (to start the season), but we were 5-0. Then I finally won one, and we ended up losing to Richmond," he said.

"I was coming back to the huddle, and everyone knew. I was like, 'Boys, I've won it', and they all had their head in their hands. I'm a little bit superstitious, so I had to forget about that pretty quickly, and move on."

Gold Coast has added Melbourne gamebreaker (and noted cook) Christian Petracca to its line-up over the off-season, who will stand side-by-side with Anderson, Matt Rowell and Touk Miller through the middle of the field.

"It's been a pleasure to train with him. What an amazing player, he's added so much energy and experience to our group. He's someone who's still continuing to learn about his game, even though he's such an amazing player," Anderson said.

"He's brought so much energy and enthusiasm to the group. I'm just excited to play alongside him and get started.

"He hasn't actually invited me round for a feed yet. We've been out a few times for dinner, but he hasn't had me round. I haven't had him round yet either, so it's probably more on me as captain. I'm not sure if my food would live up to his standards."

Gold Coast will be looking to prove last year's finals appearances – a last-gasp win over Fremantle, and a semi-final loss to Brisbane – wasn't a one-year fluke, having taken enormous confidence out of finally breaking the duck after 14 missed seasons.

"There's nothing that really beats actually experiencing it. To go over to Freo and get that win, everyone who was out there now has an understanding what that feels like," Anderson said.

"Then the second game with Brisbane, it went to a different level. They've been setting the standard for the competition for the last five years, we took some learnings from that game and understand where our gap is, and looking forward to bridging that gap moving forward."