GOLD Coast must understand the lessons offered during the second half of the season if it is to push into finals in 2015, according to coach Guy McKenna.
He hoped the players understood better what was required to play finals and that everyone at the club had undergone an education in recent week.
The Suns have won just three of their past 12 games to drop out of finals contention.
"I think mentally you have to go through that to understand if you don't turn up and compete each week at a certain level, you are going to get exposed and ultimately you have to turn up to play better than the opposition," McKenna said after the Suns' 19-point loss to the Bombers.
It was a "super" effort to overcome a three-goal deficit at half-time and hit the lead during the last quarter, McKenna said, while acknowledging it was also the sort of performance good sides put in every week.
He was proud of his players but they lost momentum when Trent McKenzie – who was playing as a loose man in defence – was subbed off with hamstring tightness.
"It exposed our under-aged - not so much undersized, but certainly under-aged - backline and they [Essendon] got a couple of breaks out of the centre ... they got some score on the board and got the momentum and at home, that is hard to stop," McKenna said.
McKenna said many of the Suns' players had been susceptible to tiring after having less than ideal pre-seasons.
He said the coaching group would also take some lessons about how to manage workloads when injuries struck to ensure the team was still coming hard at the end of the season.
But he admitted that was tough to do when the team had won seven of its first nine games.
McKenna said the Suns' inexperienced but talented midfield had maintained the rage after Gary Ablett went down in round 16.
"David Swallow, Jaeger O'Meara, Dion Prestia and Harley Bennell's last four weeks have been enormous and all those boys have had reasonable pre-seasons," McKenna said.
"Those group of lads have certainly been flying the flag and I think the learning for them without our skipper there has been enormous."
