GOLD Coast's fadeout loss to the Western Bulldogs on Saturday illustrates that the Suns' fitness levels still need to improve, according to coach Rodney Eade.

The Suns led the Bulldogs by 37 points at the 11-minute mark of the third term on the back of a five-goal first term and the first three goals of the second half.

Eade told reporters after the match that he sensed the game switched midway through the third term.

Click here to watch Rodney Eade's full post-match press conference

The Bulldogs' inaccurate 1.6 return in that quarter ensured that the Suns maintained a 26-point lead at the final break, but in the last term the Dogs powered away, piling on 10 goals to two to secure a 22-point win.

Eade said the loss had come with a lot of positives and acknowledged that injuries to forward Charlie Dixon (ankle) and midfielders David Swallow (knee), Michael Rischitelli (thigh) and Aaron Hall (groin) had not helped.

But for all this, the Suns coach said his team had simply been outrun.

"You could feel the momentum swing (in the third quarter) couldn't you?" Eade said.

"We had two blokes in the midfield who were on one leg, so that's not an excuse but we just struggled for run and we were just hanging on and you could tell that.

"We kicked the first three of the third quarter and (I) thought that was enough buffer but you could just see in the end that we couldn't cover the ground, so that was the thing.

"In the end we just got outrun, outrun by a side that can really run and they deserved to win." 

Five talking points: Western Bulldogs v Gold Coast

Eade said the Suns' relatively poor fitness levels had surprised him when he took over as coach ahead of this season, but had improved since then.

Still he emphasised that Saturday's loss came with a lot of lessons and, as a result, the theme of next week at the club would be education.

"I spoke to the players about (it being) more of a learning curve," Eade said.

"It's a game that we could have, should have won. (There were) extenuating circumstances but good sides are able to find a little bit and actually cover for each other a bit and a few of the younger players started to get really fatigued.

"But they've got to be able to dig deep and show some resilience."