Gold Coast coach Rodney Eade continued mining his list on Saturday against the Giants at Blacktown as he seeks to create a deeper midfield in 2015.

Having made it plain that the lesson from Gary Ablett's absence at the end of last season was that more numbers are needed in that key part of the ground, he took advantage of the opportunity to float some ideas.

In the absence of Ablett, Dion Prestia, Michael Rischitelli and Jaeger O'Meara, Eade threw the centre square open to new candidates.

The SUNS began the game with last year's best and fairest winner David Swallow alongside Jack Martin, who has played just 11 games, and Jesse Lonergan, whose experience sits at 13 senior matches.

He gave first gamer Josh Glenn a chance to show his wares, Harley Bennell bounced through there at times too and the bull, Danny Stanley, bashed and crashed his way through the circle when asked.

It meant the SUNS lost the clearances but it gave Eade more material to work with and information to ponder.

"We wanted to try a few things to see whether players could grab their opportunity," he said.

“[We] have to expose more players to it. Some were good, some were not as good and need another go."

They might get another chance next week when the club takes on Southport in the NEAFL before the big guns return for the SUNS' final NAB Challenge encounter, against the Brisbane Lions on March 20.

On that night, Ablett, O'Meara and Prestia are expected to return to fine tune for the season opener against Melbourne at the MCG.

That trio, along with with Rischitelli, Jarrod Harbrow, Steven May and Rory Thompson, will add some steel and skill to a side that battled hard for three quarters but never played with the sort of fluency required.

"Our skills were ordinary," Eade admitted. "We turned the ball over too much. Our method wasn't as good as theirs."

However, he knew it had been a tough preparation coming six days after a win against Geelong in piercing heat in Townsville, followed by a community camp that kept the players on their feet more than is ideal for senior footballers these days.

No complaints however from the coach. He saw enough to form some early opinions.

The only minor concerns were an injury to Josh Hall, who took a knock to his neck, and Tom Lynch, who made a fair bump but one the match review panel will look at.

Gold Coast has just under two weeks before its next NAB Challenge game and time to get better.

"[There is] certainly a lot we can learn and improve on," Eade said.