Contested footy and effort are the two simple areas Gold Coast wants to improve for Sunday's clash against Melbourne at the MCG.

After an impressive first three rounds of the season, the Suns came crashing back to earth against Hawthorn last weekend with a 99-point hammering, and young midfield star Jaeger O'Meara says it's back to basics against the Demons.

Hawthorn won the contested possession count 175-144 last Saturday, and booted seven unanswered goals in the final term to blow the margin out.

O'Meara said he expected a difficult contest against a Melbourne team that was "a lot better than last year".

"With all due respect to Hawthorn - they're a great side - we didn't play the way we wanted to play," O'Meara said.

"It's probably a different type of footy to what we've played over the last 15 months. Our effort wasn't there in the second half of that game.

"We pride ourselves on contested footy and in the second half we went away from that.

"We need to improve on that and make some inroads this weekend."

Last year's Rising Star winner said Gold Coast had learnt some harsh lessons from Hawthorn, including how to control the footy.

He said playing at the MCG for just the third time in his life would be a thrill.

"We haven't had too many opportunities to play on the MCG, at the 'Coliseum' … that's where finals footy is played so that's where we need to be able to play our best footy," he said.

"It's definitely a big ground and it suits our team with our speed and our ability to run and carry, so hopefully we can use that to our advantage this weekend."