Gold Coast recruit Jed Anderson is enjoying the challenge of being an older head among an inexperienced Suns midfield.

The tenacious Warramungu on-baller is currently at his third AFL club after 10 games at Hawthorn and a further 89 at North Melbourne.

Anderson is confident of breaking into the Suns' best-22 and is looking forward to providing a mentor role for his younger teammates.

"Absolutely I'll force my way into that best 22, when I get the call up from Stuey I'll be ready to go," Anderson said on SEN Top End.

"At the moment I just want to get the body right a play a role with the younger midfielders coming through.

"Obviously having a bit of experience under my belt, just teaching them a few tricks of what I base my football around."

After a third-place finish in North Melbourne's best and fairest in 2020, the 29-year-old played just 21 games for North Melbourne over the past two years.

He registered a career high 33-disposal seven-tackle performance against Collingwood late last year, before copping a season-ending concussion against Adelaide in Round 22.

After being delisted by North Melbourne, Anderson faced a nervous wait over the off-season and spent the time training hard at his junior club, the Darwin Buffaloes.

"The confidence was there that I was going to get another opportunity, but I guess as the AFL world goes, anything can happen.

"There was always that fire in the belly and being around the Darwin Buffaloes was probably the best thing for me to keep me in the right mindset.

"I've put in a power of work to put myself in a position where I am fit and ready to go for the practice games."

After finishing in 12th position last season, Anderson said there are high expectations among the group and he is confident that the Suns can improve to play finals football in 2023.

"We played an exciting brand of footy last year, but the ambition is there to get to September.

"We'd love to be there in the finals and not just making up the numbers."

Anderson, born in Katherine and growing up in Katherine and Darwin, is excited about the strong connection between his new club and the Territory.

The Suns have a handful of players with links to the Territory and are fixtured for two home games up north in 2023 – a clash against the Western Bulldogs on May 28 and then the Adelaide Crows the following week.

"There's a few of us (Territorians) here now and all of us are training the house down, so hopefully we can play in a game together, which would be really exciting.

"Just to have them around makes it feel like home and a local football club – it makes it fun and enjoyable."

"To go up there and play in front of family and friends again, and get a win this time, would be really good.

Anderson said he has been impressed with the training standards of his teammates, particularly skipper Touk Miller and young gun Sam Flanders.

"Just the amount of work they have put in over the off-season, how structured and diligent they are with their training.

"The intensity they put out there is exciting to see and the ruthlessness of Touk at training, I didn't really notice it until now but the amount of work he puts in to play unbelievable footy is exciting to see."