GOLD Coast's leadership group will leave the process of punishing drug-tainted midfielder Harley Bennell to the Suns' management.

Bennell is waiting to hear if he will face sanctions after photos were published across the country last week of him in a Tasmanian hotel room in March 2013 allegedly using illicit drugs.

The 22-year-old was stood down from last Saturday's big win over North Melbourne in what was essentially a welfare decision, but could face a longer stint on the sidelines if the club suspends him for his alleged wrongdoing.

AFL to help Suns with drugs investigation

Bennell wants to play the Western Bulldogs in Cairns on Saturday, but the complex issue is being decided upon by the Suns, Bennell and AFL Players' Association.

A decision is not expected until Wednesday at the earliest, and more than likely Thursday.

Suns players led the drive earlier in the season to enforce a drinking ban, with multiple players missing games after being found to have breached those self-imposed regulations.

But Suns vice-captain Tom Lynch says Bennell's punishment will be coming from outside the playing group.

"Management's going to take care of that. They're going to gather the facts and they're going to work through it," Lynch said.

"We may have some discussion, but senior management will take care of that and give their opinions."

Lynch said the player's main priority remained ensuring Bennell was receiving their support through his personal crisis.

"Harley had a tough week last week, as you can imagine," he said.

"Senior management will take care of the issues, what to do with him from now on, but for now we're just trying to support him and keep him relatively upbeat."

Bennell made a brief appearance at Suns training on Tuesday morning before leaving the main group.

The club is also conducting an internal investigation into claims from ex-Sun Karmichael Hunt that several players were repeatedly using cocaine at various end-of-season functions following the 2014 campaign.

Hunt's allegations were made in a report to police following his own conviction for cocaine possession in March.

Lynch said as hard as it may be for some to believe, the Suns were better placed than 12 months ago despite the off-field controversies.

"We could have quite comfortably, with the issues with drinking, said we'll deal with it internally, but as a club we want to be hard on standards and this year we're trying to effect change and be harder," he said.

"We believe we're making massive gains in that area.

"Obviously it's hard for the public to see that compared to last year, especially with win-loss, but there's other factors (injuries) there as well.

"Sometimes you have to go backwards to go forwards. We think we're in a much stronger position."