With a handful of the SUNS’ prime movers sidelined through injury, youngster Touk Miller has assumed increased responsibility in the engine room with minimal fuss.

Miller backed up his Marcus Ashcroft medal-winning performance against the Lions to be his side’s best midfielder in the 48-point loss to the Bulldogs, but a disappointing first half by Gold Coast saw their opponents kick five unanswered goals to open up an unassailable lead.

“That first half we really let ourselves down, especially that second quarter,” Miller told BLK RAW post-game.

“Really poor out of the midfield, the centre bounces were really costly but I think his (Rodney Eade's) end message was it wasn’t a pass but that second half I think we ended up losing by one goal so we fought back.

“Not only did it show on the scoreboard but we did give it a bit more of a dip in that second half.”

The SUNS were smashed in all of the key indicators, well and truly beaten in the midfield, but stuck with the Bulldogs in a much tighter second half, kicking 3.8 to 4.8.

Miller said an increased effort was behind the solid finish and basic improvements should put the side in a good position against 16th placed Fremantle this Saturday afternoon at Metricon Stadium.

“Just showing effort. I think we’re going to be a bit depleted for the next few weeks but as long as we bring that effort as we have done in the past, last year,” he said.

“We’ve still got a lot of things to focus on. Our kicking let us down a fair bit, just poor decisions, not following instructions so build basic things we can do going into next week so fingers crossed we can do that.”

The SUNS started Saturday’s game in Cairns with a midfield consisting of Tom Nicholls, Jesse Lonergan, Miller and Aaron Hall.

Compare that to a week earlier when Nicholls was joined by Gary Ablett, Dion Prestia and Michael Rischitelli for the opening bounce.

Given the vast turnover in personnel, midfield chemistry between the new group of midfielders is a definite work in progress.

“I think it’s more that we don’t play together as much. It’s hard to get a bit of synergy when you lose three midfielders out of your squad so we were building that,” Miller said.

“It’s a bit disappointing that they’re (Ablett, Prestia & Rischitelli) not in there but we’ve got to cope with what we’ve got and probably going to have a few weeks together so hopefully we go really well.

“Obviously we’re going to be training a lot more together and a lot more boys will be going through there so we’ve got to do what we can during the week to make sure we build trust and we nail the centre bounces next week.”