By Michael Whiting

Guy McKenna has encouraged Gold Coast SUNS to take some risks as they seek their third win of the season against the Western Bulldogs on Saturday.

The GC SUNS coach said while he could not fault his team's endeavour during their inaugural season, they were playing safe and needed to take more risks.

Since defeating the Brisbane Lions in round seven, Gold Coast SUNS have lost five straight matches but shown they can compete with competition heavyweights for extended periods of time.

Against Hawthorn last Saturday they trailed by 17 points at half-time before being blown away by 71 points.

In the preceding three matches they led the undefeated Geelong at half-time, and after a slow start against resurgent West Coast, won the final three quarters.

With Gary Ablett and Michael Rischitelli leading the way with centre clearances, McKenna said the step to creating more scoring opportunities would come from playing with more adventure.

"We need to play fast footy because the more we do that the better we're going to be. As soon as we play safe we get gobbled up," McKenna said.

"It's like a 16 year-old boxer fighting a 28 year-old boxer. (If) you sit in the corner and wait for it to happen … you know you're going to end up on the canvas.

"We need to throw some jabs and get out and get on the front foot because if we sit back we're an easy target. That's the challenge. It's natural that when things go against you everyone wants to go back into their shell and we can't do that.

"That's what I get annoyed with. The execution, we'll turn balls over, I expect that, I expect us to kick the ball laterally and get it picked off and that's going to look bad but the more we do it, the better we'll know how to do it next time."

McKenna said composure when using the ball would come as the Suns spent more time together.

"We're showing the ability to win it, find it, go after it, get it, then what happens after that? When we do it well, we're in the games, but as soon as we don't have that composure and find our targets we get caught on the counter attack and you get opened up by quicker and harder sides.

"Slowly but surely we're playing longer minutes of better footy, an AFL standard footy, men's footy if you like to call it that. To do that it comes at some risk by pushing the players and asking them to do things they wouldn't normally do as in (not) playing safe."

Gold Coast SUNS played the Bulldogs in round three and lost by 71 points, and while they have largely struggled since, McKenna was full or praise for Saturday's opponents.

He said any team that contained the likes of Ryan Griffen, Matthew Boyd and Daniel Cross among others, would be a handful, no matter what form they were in.

"I think on their day, two or three weeks ago against Richmond, they kicked 21 or 23 goals to 17," he said, referring to the Bulldogs round eight victory.

"We understand if we let teams off the hook it (conceding goals) can happen really quickly and the Doggies have some quality players.

"The season is only going to get harder and we need to embrace that and put a smile on our face and harden up and get better."