IT WAS a dirty day at the office for Gold Coast defender Josh Toy but coach Guy McKenna has tipped the youngster to bounce back next week after he was convincingly outplayed by Essendon's Kyle Reimers.

Reimers out-bodied and out-maneuvered Toy all day, kicking a career-high eight goals in the Bombers' 139-point demolition of the Suns.

Although the 19-year-old had 14 touches of his own, including 10 contested possessions and four tackles, he was caught ball watching several times as his direct opponent Reimers continued to hurt the Suns on the scoreboard.

Without the experience of All-Australian defender Nathan Bock and former Hawthorn premiership player Campbell Brown (both suspended), the Suns' backline was very exposed.

Former Western Bulldog Jarrod Harbrow was the most experienced defender and was left to marshal the back six, a job he did well in the circumstances.

McKenna said Toy, who has played just four AFL games, needed to work on his ability to compete one-on-one but was confident the 19-year-old would come out firing next week against the Brisbane Lions.

"It was a nasty message for him today and I'm sure it's going to leave a nasty taste in his mouth, but great for him," McKenna said after the loss.

"I know Josh, and I know what he's like and I know what his spirit's like, and I just fear for the Brisbane bloke he's going to play on next week.

"We expect more from him but when you look around at who was around him, Jarrod Harbrow's there, Karmichael Hunt's there. You take Jarrod Harbrow's games out from the Western Bulldogs and I think we had about 15 games worth of experience down there."

McKenna was unable to stop the onslaught in the opening term and while most teams would have thrown numbers behind the ball to stem the flow, the coach resisted so he could teach his young players a lesson.

"It was a good opportunity to test the resolve of a young group," McKenna said.

"There's only so much the leaders can do, there was certainly some technical things our midfield needed to adjust to and certainly our defenders needed to adjust to.

"But there's no point giving them an out by putting extra players behind them. That's not going to teach them how to get up and start playing on your opponent. Probably in essence of that lesson, they failed. But that's good, at least I know that as a coach."

Even if they failed in their attempts overall, the Suns were still able to win one quarter of football - the second.

McKenna's side struggled to gain possession of the ball in the first term and managed just 52 disposals.

But they turned it around before half time with 118 possessions in the second quarter to Essendon's 103.

"I just pleaded to them [at quarter time], 'is there any danger of someone actually getting their hands on the football?" McKenna said.

"Game plans aside, nothing is working.

"That was the difference and all of sudden we won the possession count in the second quarter by 10 and the inside 50s go up, our contested ball went up and surprise, surprise, we kicked five goals to three."