After a disappointing QClash result on the weekend, senior coach Stuart Dew says he is looking for a response from his team during the week. 

The SUNS were overrun by the Lions at Metricon Stadium on Saturday afternoon, and Dew was critical of his side’s execution, despite the effort.

“It’s definitely not capabilities,” Dew said post-match.

“Our work rate is there but our work in tight - I think we’re getting too many broken tackles. 

“We saw it last week as well and we talked about playing against bigger bodies. 

“I think this week we need to talk about what we can control and what we’re doing rather than the opposition.” 

After an impressive start to the season with a 3-1 record, the SUNS have dropped off with a pair of lacklustre defeats.

But Dew says his team isn’t far off the mark and need to look back on what they were doing in the opening month of the season to recapture their form. 

“Our consistency and preparation early in the year was spot on and then today I think it showed that there must be some gaps and we need to find them and fix them,” he said.

“We need to dig a little bit around how did we compare in the first month compared to the last two weeks? 

“Did we get comfortable? Are we preparing like the best? Did we drop off a bit?

“So we need to sift through that and then drive the group forward because it doesn’t get any easier this week.” 

The SUNS will take on reigning premiers West Coast this week at Optus Stadium on Saturday. 

With the trip to Perth looming mid-week, Dew said the club needed to prepare for both the short and long-term. 

“Yes there’s the week to week component but we’ve certainly got a bigger picture at play,” he said.

“So I think in that sense it’s just every small brick at a time and we’ve got to make sure we keep putting them up. 

“We don’t want to go two steps forward and one back, we’d rather edge our way forward and continually go forward and improve so that’s what we’ll be driving this week.”