Winning away from home is tough for any AFL team, but Gold Coast’s road woes have slumped to alarming levels across the past 12 months ahead of this weekend’s trip to Perth.

The Suns have climbed to an encouraging 7-6 record to be knocking on the door of the top eight in their first season with Damien Hardwick at the helm, built off the back of a strong record at their People First Stadium base and their home-away-from-home venue at Darwin’s TIO Stadium.

However, any other venue has spelt trouble for the expansion club.

Gold Coast enter Sunday’s clash with Fremantle at Optus Stadium having dropped their past 13 games away from Carrara and Marrarra, with their last such win coming against West Coast in Perth last May.

Suns defender Joel Jeffrey said despite the poor recent record, there wouldn’t be any significant changes to the club’s approach ahead of the trip to face the Dockers.

“What we spoke about last week was just the exciting part of it - going away and not having the crowd in our favour,” Jeffrey told SEN.

“You’ve got to win away as well.

“It’s important we trust in our system and back in what we’ve got to (do) to win away. It’s nothing different than playing at home.”

The Suns will be boosted by the return of co-captain Jarrod Witts after a hamstring injury, while WA product Wil Powell is also likely to come straight back into the side after serving a five-match suspension for using a homophobic slur.

But there’s a cloud over star spearhead Ben King - whose tally of 38 goals is more than three times that of any other teammate this season - as he looks to overcome a knee issue.

Jeffrey said the indications were positive for the full-forward ahead of the club’s main training sessions in the lead-up to Sunday.

“If he gets up (through training on Thursday), he’ll definitely play,” Jeffrey said.

“When I saw him (on Tuesday), he was looking pretty confident and ready to go. So it’s good news.”