Rodney Eade revealed his Gold Coast SUNS players went into last weekend’s round one game against Melbourne with a poor mentality.

In a game most football experts predicted the SUNS would win, and win quite comfortably, the Demons taught Eade’s men a football lesson through sheer desire and will to work.

After a performance absent of effort and an acceptable level of intensity required at AFL level, Eade and the match committee made a statement at the selection table by dropping defender Trent McKenzie. The message is clear; effort is how players will be measured on performance. Not, simply by their output with ball in hand.

Following a forensic examination of the side’s shortcomings against Melbourne, Eade explained that the young crop of players at Metricon Stadium still had an expectation Gary Ablett would rise to the occasion and carry the team over the line. Something that caught the veteran coach by surprise.

“A few have said they probably went to the game expecting they were going to win and that's always dangerous," Eade told reporters on Friday.

"In the past Gaz would get us over the line. We've got to get rid of that mentality. We’ve got to get some hard work on board.

“It surprises me, but that’s what I’ve been told previously. So you’ve just got to experience it yourself.

“And that was surprising to me given their pre-season efforts, and their pre-season NAB games. I thought there was a fair bit of effort shown in those and a fair bit of competitive nature, but it was non-existent last week.”

On the back of an underwhelming first up showing, Eade has brought in three players who build their games around having a large appetite for the contest.

Tom Lynch’s return from suspension is a massive plus from not only a scoreboard perspective, but also the manner in which he goes about his football. The spearhead is renowned for his contested work and is a leader who drags players along with him through his inspirational acts.

“I think age profile we’re the second youngest, but we’re not super young. It just shows that a few that have been around awhile probably cruise a bit, so we’ve got to get players in… and the three players we’ve brought in are all competitors,” Eade said.

“I mean Tom Lynch is a given, but young Sean Lemmens and Seb Tape are just competitors.

“We’ve got to get that first, I mean you’ve got to get the non-negotiable right, you can have all the game plans and tactics and whatever you want to do, but if you don’t get effort as a baseline you’re not going to succeed.”