Gold Coast young star Harley Bennell shows maturity in the west this time

HARLEY Bennell will front up at a Suns recovery session today - no one at the club doubts that, such is the turnaround in his life since.

Harley Bennell

HARLEY Bennell will front up at a Suns recovery session today - no one at the club doubts that, such is the turnaround in his life since his troubled early days on the Gold Coast.

Bennell, probably the best of a bad bunch for the Suns against West Coast on Saturday, was allowed to stay in WA for an extra night for his mother's birthday - despite having gone AWOL during the side's last trip to Perth.

Bennell relished the trip to WA at the weekend, but did not suffer the rush of emotions his last visit sparked and was one of the few Suns willing to take the game on against the Eagles.

"I feel like I've matured a lot as a person since last year," he said.

"I accept I did the wrong thing back then. I'm fortunate that the club let me stay an extra night again this year. They know they had nothing to worry about this time."

Bennell was banished to the NEAFL for four weeks for missing his flight home last year, a suspension he felt was tough at the time but has come to realise was not only warranted, but may have also helped his emergence.

"Those weeks in the NEAFL made me desperate to win back the side's trust and determined to return to have the impact at AFL level I believed I was capable of," he said.

"I was flooded with invites for dinner or coffee from my teammates and it made me realise the value of being part of a team."

Bennell has been the best story of a bleak 2012 for the Suns.

Although he is as capable of drifting in and out of games as any of his young teammates, he has made the most significant advances and it could be argued he ranks second only to skipper Gary Ablett in the ability to hurt the opposition.

He says time spent living with teammate Karmichael Hunt taught him talent alone wasn't enough to succeed. 

"I was blown away by how professional he is and I just started to copy his every move," he said.

"I learned a lot about diet, recovery and saw the extras that guys like him do to get to the top."

Once a week he does contested ballwork drills with Hunt and skipper Gary Ablett that he credits with his new confidence around the stoppages.