GOLD Coast coach Cam Joyce said the Suns were "embarrassed" with their 69-point loss to Geelong, and that his players aren't working hard enough.
After making finals last year, Gold Coast has had an incredibly inconsistent first month, losing to St Kilda by 54, letting a lead against Carlton slip in the final minutes, and snatching a draw against a Greater Western Sydney team with three injuries.
"I think the overriding emotion is that we're embarrassed with what we dished up today, in front of our home crowd and back at home," Joyce said in his post-match press conference.
"I think I said round one, it wasn't a true reflection of us. I think what we spoke about inside is that now that's two from four in terms of performances like that. And we need to go and have a deep dive around the why. There's obviously a fair bit in it today, and a fair bit we didn't do well.
"I don't think it's the attitude – we just spoke inside about it, it's about actions. It's about the doing. At the moment we're not prepared to work as we need to, to be able to both execute and help us attack and defend like we need to. As I said, we all need to have a good look at that, myself and the players included, to be able to respond in six days' time against Collingwood."
The Credit to the Girls team took a close look at Gold Coast's first month of football, identifying a lack of run in their game so far this year.
"Cam Joyce is a pretty straight character, he's very measured, so when he uses language like that, that's someone else yelling and screaming and throwing a fit. For him to say that, and also comment on their unwillingness to do the work – watching as a fan of the game, you can see that's really exposing them," Gemma Bastiani said.
"They're getting absolutely torn up on turnover, because they're not running defensively well enough. It's leaving their defence all at sea – a defence that doesn't have Viv Saad (Achilles), didn't have Meara Girvan (shoulder) until two weeks ago, Lauren Ahrens (Western Bulldogs) is out of there. They're throwing them to the wolves, essentially."
The issues are fixable, provided Gold Coast works harder around the ground.
"The biggest thing for me watching is, the Suns forwards don't want to be accountable to their defenders, it seems. The ball comes out of inside 50 way too easily, therefore, you're not keeping it in your forward half," Lucy Watkin said.
"But the midfielders aren't setting up behind the ball well enough either, so if the ball's coming out of inside 50, it's going straight back up the ground, so there's no time in forward half."
