Gold Coast Suns coach Stuart Dew has warned his floundering team that another sloppy performance like the display against Carlton would struggle to beat any AFL team, let alone a red-hot Western Bulldogs squad.
The Gold Coast outfit slipped to a 1-3 record on Saturday after the 11-point loss to the Blues with Dew lamenting his team’s poor decision-making and error rate.
Gold Coast committed an ugly 81 turnovers against the Blues, who led at every change on their way to the 9.16 (70) to 8.11 (59) victory.
With the unbeaten Western Bulldogs next up on Saturday at Marvel Stadium, Dew knows a much-improved effort is needed by his entire squad to have any chance of stopping Luke Beveridge’s in-form team.
“You can’t play like that against anyone to be fair, you won’t get it done,” Dew said.
“The Bulldogs, watched them today, impressive. They are fierce in the contest, they spread well, have some firepower up forward.
“Absolutely no one is going to pick us so we’ve got to pick ourselves up. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We stick together and get going.”
Having come up short in three close matches against West Coast, Adelaide and Carlton, Dew says it is only his players who can turn the Suns’ stuttering campaign around if they’re not to have another season languishing in the lower half of the ladder.
“We’ve got to get over this hump. We haven’t as yet,” he said.
“We certainly feel like we are close. We are in the conversation. Is that where we want to be? No. But it is a part of our DNA that we try to get instilled in the boys that they are in the game.
“We certainly have to learn to win. We feel like when we get over the hump, we’ll be in good shape.”
© AAP
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