Gold Coast SUNS skipper Gary Ablett says the SUNS first win of the season would arrive when his side learnt to play for each other.
Ablett pulled no punches when he said the SUNS had given themselves no chance of success in their 95 point loss to the Saints because they had not worked hard enough, especially for each other.
And although the task of fine tuning the SUNS into serious AFL contenders would remain a work in progress - a rapid improvement would occur the minute his men fixed those two areas.
And a win against the Kangaroos at Metricon Stadium on Saturday was not out of the question.
"Our effort wasn't great and we didn't play for each other,'' he said.
"There was lots of little things as well, we have focus areas that we didn't do too well and they will be the same this week.
"We've got to do those things better, but I guess we just need to play as a team.
"I'm sure we are not going to fix everything in a week, but if we can do that we will get a win very soon, hopefully this week.''
Ablett is juggling the frustration of an 18 game run of losses with the first hand knowledge, gained when he was coming through the ranks in an emerging Geelong side in 2002-2003, that there is no substitute for experience.
"They had the same issues down there, a young side and inexperience around the club,'' he said.
"We are learning as a football club, we are a new club and we have a very young group.
"But at the same time that can't be used as an excuse.
"The boys have 20 or 30 games under their belt now.
"There have been some positives and we have to make sure we build on those and fix the areas we don't do too well.''
He uses his own experience as a constant reminder to his younger team mates that they cannot dwell on their losses.
He says personal pride insists they hurt after performances like last week but they must always look at how they can improve.
"We are looking forward to this weekend and the chance to put in a better performance than last week which was obviously very disappointing,’’ he said.
"You've always got to look forward and that is exactly what we are doing.''