It is a sight Gold Coast SUNS supporters will be desperately hoping is a line in the sand moment. Following the final siren on Saturday night, after another disappointing performance to begin the season, Gary Ablett brought the players into a tight huddle on the wing and addressed them in an assertive manner.

You didn’t need to be a lip reader to understand the message. The performance simply wasn’t tolerable. And after the opening two rounds of the season, the SUNS have looked far from the finals contenders that many experts predicted during the pre-season.

Speaking at Gold Coast’s recovery session on Sunday morning, Ablett told reporters the effort displayed in the opening two matches against Melbourne and St Kilda has been unacceptable. Whilst you can’t control the outcome of the game, the dual Brownlow medallist insists you can control your level of effort.

“I just pretty much said to them: it’s obviously disappointing, the effort wasn’t good enough. And look, if the efforts there, and you’re competitive, and we’re sticking to structures and to our game plan and you lose, well then - obviously it's not ideal - but that’s all we can control,” Ablett said.

“I just said to them, boys, the two performances we’ve put in just isn’t acceptable. We’re going to cop a whack on Monday.

“We need to take it on the chin and we need to move forward and we need to look forward to Geelong and make sure we put in a better performance.”

After a summer of speculation regarding the physical state of his shoulder and his mental preparation for the impending barrage, Ablett admits his shoulder is not at 100 per cent at this stage. But, with more games and more exposure to the rigours of league football, Ablett sees his impact rising accordingly.

“It’s not 100 per cent, I won’t lie about that, but I’m putting my hand up to play each week. So I do that, I’ve got to make sure I play my role out there,” he said.

“As the weeks roll on, hopefully it gets stronger, I feel a bit more confident in it and I can play a bit more through the midfield.”

Two rounds into the new campaign, and two underwhelming performances don’t define a season according to Ablett. The champion midfielder says Rodney Eade’s side must once again address the issues from the weekend and identify ways in which the side can improve before moving forward.

“We’re only two rounds in, that’s the good thing,” Ablett said.

“Sure we’re probably going to cop a whack today, tomorrow, and for the rest of the week from the media. But, internally we need to cop it on the chin.

“I’m sure we’re going to go through a lot of edits and look at those areas we need to improve. Come Tuesday, we move forward and we look at Geelong.”