Gold Coast SUNS Senior Coach Stuart Dew has put the onus on his players to respond after a poor showing against Carlton at the MCG on Sunday afternoon.
A second quarter tsunami of goals from the Blues was the turning point of the match, while Carlton were also much stronger around the ball.
Speaking post-match, Dew was retrospective after the loss and said the team’s form prior to the bye gave him confidence the players would be able to respond.
“We were disappointed with today and need to take responsibility,” he said.
“The second quarter was as disappointing a quarter we’ve had, but I don’t think that defines where we’re at.
“We’ve played a strong brand of footy for the last six or seven weeks but we let ourselves down and it’s a missed opportunity.
“We need to lick our wounds, but the season shows us those who bounce back from these type of performances are the ones who continue to move forward and we need to make sure we’re one of those teams.”
While the Blues found their form, the SUNS will lament a missed opportunity after squaring the ledger at 6-6 with two impressive wins in Darwin.
Dew said the club would keep a consistent approach to its review of the game, as it has done so well already in 2023.
“We’ve had some tests the last couple of weeks with the Bulldogs and Crows when they were in the eight and we won those games,” Dew said.
“We’ll keep it level as we did when we’ve had some good performances – that’s been a strength of ours.”
A silver lining from the match was the exposure of Wil Powell and Nick Holman through the midfield after half-time.
“We wanted to change the mix and had Alex (Sexton) there with fresh legs,” Dew said.
“We started the next centre bounce with Wil Powell in there which we’ve been talking about for a little while.
“We think he could offer something in that role and will progress to that position on the ground at some stage, so today he had a bit of a look and a taste.
“We put Nick Holman in there and to no surprise he came off with the blood rule again, he’s always going to put his head in the hole and fight it out until the end.”
The SUNS return to Heritage Bank Stadium for the first time in six weeks to take on Hawthorn in Round 15.
