THE STORM clouds that drenched Gold Coast's Carrara headquarters last week have slowly begun to part.

Torrential rain from ex Tropical Cyclone Debbie forced staff home early last Thursday, and it got worse for the team on Saturday when they copped a 102-point shellacking at the hands of GWS.

But by Tuesday afternoon's session at Metricon Stadium, perhaps the sun peeking through to bounce off the Suns' home turf had signalled the start of a new chapter.

Gold Coast hopes so.

The past 72 hours has been a footy club's version of hell.

They had an uncomfortable review of Saturday's game on Monday that included the presence of CEO Mark Evans, and were rightfully hammered by national media in the past few days.

Drama is not new for the Suns – they've been through plenty in their six-plus seasons.

They've dealt with drug scandals involving Harley Bennell and Karmichael Hunt, the sacking of Campbell Brown for punching Steven May, the axing of inaugural coach Guy McKenna, and more recently the departures of top-end talent Dion Prestia and Jaeger O'Meara.

In its own way, this is a little different.

At a press conference earlier on Tuesday, veteran midfielder Michael Barlow echoed Evans' words that the club would fight its current plight together.

After unveiling its new training and administration base and trumpeting the acquisition of four mature midfielders and four top-10 draft picks, Barlow said perhaps the Suns had read their own pre-season media.

But after a shock loss to the Lions, which one Suns official described as "non negotiable" prior to round one, last Saturday was a new low.

But you have no choice in footy but to front up again, and based on Tuesday afternoon's skills session at least, the Suns are practising what they've preached – they're sticking together.

At least on the training track.

The men most in the spotlight since Saturday have been out-of-contract Eade and former skipper Gary Ablett, whose 16-disposal performance was labelled in some circles as one lacking interest.

Early in the 70-minute session, players took turns at running through a tunnel of their teammates – where they were pushed and shoved to simulate pressure – before popping out the other end to kick for goal.

At the players' request, Eade was ushered through the tunnel for a turn, copping his share of jokes and light-hearted jeering before emerging out the other side.

After his bit of fun with the players though, he was happy to let his assistant coaches run most of the session as the players split off into four or five groups to work on specific skills.

Dean Solomon, Andy Lovell, Ashley Prescott and Matthew Primus each had a group, and 'Rocket' was happy to mainly observe from the middle and yap to anyone who had a spare minute.

It's not unusual at Suns sessions for him to speak early – and he gathered all the players in the centre of the ground for a mid-session chat – before letting the other coaches take control.

Ablett spent plenty of time in a short-sided game that gave players a split second to assess their options and hit a target.

Not surprisingly – at least in my time with the binoculars on him – the dual Brownlow medallist didn't miss a single kick.

During the pre-season he was big on taking younger players aside and individually instructing them on the finer points of winning a contested ball or getting their body position right.

Tuesday's session didn't really allow much one-on-one time between the players, but Ablett looked engaged and energetic.

Whether it was a mantra prior to the session or not, it was clear the players were focussed on plenty of talk – and doing it loudly.

While the usual assortment of voices (Tom Lynch and Barlow among them) were flying around, one who could be heard above most was young back pocket Sean Lemmens.

He was quite happy to instruct more senior figures on where they should be standing and what they should be doing.

After a strenuous 10-minute wrestling session, which pitted players one-on-one in confined spaces, it was time to wind up.

Ryan Davis, Jarryd Lyons and Lemmens all had a crack – unsuccessfully – at pinning Ablett, and the strain on the faces of big men Jarrod Witts and Peter Wright as they busted a gut to drop each other, was fair evidence the players cared.

The Suns were unified on a sunny Tuesday afternoon in front of empty Metricon Stadium stands, but Sunday's match against Hawthorn in front of thousands of hopeful fans will prove whether the talk and this training session had some substance or was all bluster.