The gulf in personnel, particularly in the midfield, was always going to be a problem against Richmond. But the effort and intent produced was not at a level Gold Coast has gradually become accustomed to under Rodney Eade.
 
After enduring a dismal start to the season with a myriad of injuries and a question mark on effort and intensity marring the early part to the year, the SUNS, whilst not conjuring a lot of wins, have slowly earned respect through their endeavour.
 
Another spate of injuries against the Tigers didn’t assist Gold Coast’s cause on Sunday afternoon at the MCG, but despite the injury setbacks, utility Aaron Hall echoed Rodney Eade’s post match sentiments: the effort simply wasn’t good enough.
 
“Rocket’s been talking about how we’ve had a quality six weeks effort wise, we’ve been competitive against some quality opposition,” Hall told reporters on Monday.
 
“Yesterday wasn’t probably the most ideal situation, in terms of injuries and everything, but we weren’t happy with our effort. We don’t want to get beaten by 80 points.
 
“We know Richmond are a quality opposition but we didn’t play anywhere near the way we would like to play. So we will look at the review after this and look forward to Essendon."
 
The first to be struck by the injury curse against Richmond was Charlie Dixon, who re-aggravated an ankle injury in the second quarter that has continued to resurface throughout 2015. Tom Nicholls followed suit shortly after with a knee injury that forced him to be substituted out of the game at half-time.
 
And then Jack Martin joined the list of key casualties after he was taken from the ground on a stretcher following a sickening head clash with Trent Cotchin that left him motionless on the ground with a deep gash at the back of his head. Dixon did return during the second half but his output was significantly down as he struggled to cover the ground.
 
Losing the sole ruckman at the main break made things even more difficult for a midfield that was already missing its best four onballers, but Hall also suggested that the SUNS ran out of legs as Richmond clicked into gear in the second half.
 
“Obviously with Tom going down – our ruckman – we had to switch some things up, Tommy Lynch had to come into the ruck and Josh Hall from down back so structurally we just had to jiggle stuff out.
 
“Maybe we did run out of legs? I know myself I didn’t finish off the game as I would have liked but maybe it was that as well.”