The injury toll that has penetrated the Gold Coast SUNS this season has completely decimated the midfield department, leaving Rodney Eade without his entire first choice engine room. The dire state of affairs has not attracted the level of recognition that it should when you consider its effect on performance.

With Gary Ablett, David Swallow, Jaeger O’Meara and Dion Prestia all missing large chunks of the season, the damage done has been substantial. But football analysts and critics have chosen to turn a blind eye for the majority of the campaign. Instead, pointing the finger squarely at other areas for a 1-8 start.

The task won’t get any easier this weekend with Sydney travelling to Queensland in red-hot form and with arguably the strongest midfield contingency in the game. With Dan Hannebery, Luke Parker, Josh Kennedy and Jarrad McVeigh all fit and firing, the gulf in available class is enormous.

Gold Coast’s inability to hurt teams on transition and with run and carry has been blatantly evident during the opening nine weeks of the season. And it will be an area of concern for Eade once again on Saturday night, but the veteran coach will be doing all he can to devise a plan to quell the influence of the Swans onball brigade.

“That’s going to be a big concern. I think even the games we’ve lost heavily we’ve been pretty competitive in the physical contest, whether it be contested ball, whether it's stoppages, even our tackling’s been pretty good really,” Eade told SUNS TV on Thursday night.

“We’ve just been struggling to run and to spread. And that’s going to happen again on the weekend. I don’t know whether people really comprehend the depth of the talent out of our midfield. Any team that loses their best four midfielders, I’ve never heard of it before.

“North Melbourne, who are a top four side, have got their best three midfielders out and they lost to Freo by twelve goals and they got overrun on the weekend. It is a challenge for our guys there’s no doubt.

“We’ll have to do some different tactics to try and block the Sydney runners when they do win the ball because they do like to run to space and they spread really well. If they are able to get out, it’s going to make it difficult for our defenders with Franklin and Tippett down there.”