GOLD Coast coach Rodney Eade gave a tentative thumbs up for his players’ efforts but fired a rocket to a couple of head-dropping Suns after their 92-point loss to West Coast at Domain Stadium.

The injury-depleted visitors gave up 12 goals in the third term but fought back with four goals to two in the final term despite Harley Bennell being injured just after they had activated their substitute late in the third.

"It’s tough without our players but we’ve got to hang in there, we’ve got to show resilience. I think most of the players did tonight, I was disappointed a few players didn’t," Eade said.

"They seemed to drop their heads at times so that’s just a learning curve that it’s not acceptable at AFL level.

"But I think generally we actually dug in, we were 100 down at three-quarter time (102 points) and were able to resurrect something in the last quarter so that showed a little bit of character of the young group."

Eade conceded it was always going to be a huge task for the Suns in Perth with Gary Ablett, David Swallow, Jaeger O’Meara, Nick Malceski, Jack Martin, Tom Lynch (late withdrawal), Steven May (suspended), Luke Russell and Adam Saad missing from the line-up.

"We won the clearances … we had 103 tackles so you think on the surface of those figures – the third quarter was obviously poor – the effort was pretty good," Eade said.

"There was just a gulf in experience and a gulf in talent.

WATCH: Rodney Eade's full media conference

"They were cleaner with the ball, we made errors and gave them chances, they actually created chances themselves because of their talent so there was just a real talent gulf which if you look at the players we had out, there was always a chance that that was going to happen.

"I felt sorry for some of our defenders. (Jack) Leslie had played two games, (Henry) Schade had played three – the third quarter was like an air-raid shelter. I think to the kids’ credit they really kept contesting, they really stuck to their tasks.

"There were some positives to come out of it. It was just coming over here with a real age and game deficit and a talent deficit that made the difference."

The Bennell fiasco for the Suns revived the call for a review of the substitute rule. Eade had his own take on what he’d like to see.

"I reckon it’s four (interchange) and a sub," Eade said.

"But that sub can only come on with an injured player. I don’t know what that rule looks like but the person he subs can’t play next week and if that sub doesn’t get a run, or only plays less than a half he can play in the WAFL or he can play in the seconds.

"It’s really just a last precaution rule so to even the teams up, so you have the four on the ground.

"The game is getting tougher and harder and with what we are asking players to do there is going to be a greater attrition rate."

But the Suns’ problems were well entrenched by the time any substitution factors came into it and Eade conceded that a half-time change of tactics had backfired.

"We had a bit more of a contested game in the first half and had one less forward and made it more difficult to score," he said.

"We were able to not hold them but we were five or six down at half-time so we changed it up to give us a chance to score and win. But their experience and their running ability was able to expose us then."