Just when it appeared like the injury curse hovering over Metricon Stadium appeared to be subsiding, it reared its ugly head again on the weekend, taking away Jack Martin once more and only seconds after putting him back on the park.
 
To say the injury toll at the Gold Coast SUNS has been unfair would be like labelling a natural disaster as a tragedy. Rodney Eade’s side has been forced to play 39 players across the opening nine rounds. A figure that is astronomical by seasons end, not two months into the season. To give this number some context, the undefeated Fremantle have used just 26 players in the same period.
 
At 1-8, matters can’t get much worse in Carrara, but given the next two matches are against premiership contenders Sydney and Fremantle, the bye can’t come soon enough. Despite the bleak state of affairs, Eade is resolute in his belief that lessons can be learned from the tough period.
 
“It doesn’t (get any easier), especially with players out again. It doesn’t get any easier, we’ve got Sydney who are in red-hot form and then we’ve got Freo who are in even better form,” Eade told reporters following the SUNS' 53-point loss to Hawthorn.
 
“It’s tough. It’s certainly a tough period we’ve been presented with, with the injuries we’ve got and it’s how you work your way through that.”
 
With so much class missing from the SUNS, and from the on-ball division in particular, Gold Coast has battled to break opponents open on the spread. But when you consider Gary Ablett, David Swallow, Jaeger O’Meara and Jack Martin have missed so much football, it’s not difficult to see why.
 
The SUNS' effort has been questioned repeatedly throughout 2015, but while Eade believes his side’s effort has been sufficient, its inability to run and break the lines has been a decisive factor instead.
 
“Even the West Coast game, and I know people find it strange, we got beaten by 90 points, I thought our effort was pretty good for most of it. We had 103 tackles and won contested ball and won stoppages easily, but we just couldn’t run, we can’t spread,” Eade said.
 
“So people see the opposition get an easy possession is through a lack of effort, but it’s not its through our inability to be able to spread and that’s going to be an issue the against next two weeks.
 
“As long as we bring that effort and we try and work a plan each week, how we’re going to move the ball and go about it.”