3 minute read

Gold Coast coach Stuart Dew says GWS are the best team the Suns have encountered during a seven-match AFL losing streak.

Reeling from Gold Coast's heaviest defeat of the AFL season, coach Stuart Dew admits his charges had been given a lesson by the best team they've encountered in 2019.

Dew's high praise for GWS came after Leon Cameron's side dished out an 83-point belting on Saturday at Giants Stadium.

The Suns started the season promisingly with three wins from the opening four rounds but have followed it up with a seven-match losing streak.

That slump has also included defeats to reigning premiers West Coast and ladder-leading Geelong, but the Giants have made the biggest impression on Dew.

"We were outclassed," Dew told reporters.

"There's lots to learn. That's the best side we've played all year, for sure.

"They've got weapons all over the ground; they're going to be tough to beat.

"We give them credit but it's not the way we want to play the game out."

Dew suggested the final quarter was the most-disappointing aspect of Saturday's defeat.

The Giants booted 9.5 (59) after three-quarter time, making it the expansion club's second highest score in one term.

"We talked about how we hadn't won any of the quarters," Dew said of this address at the final break.

"That's been a strength of ours - even against West Coast and Geelong.

"We let ourselves down in the last quarter.

"They came out breathing fire ... our boys couldn't go with them."

Jack Bowes will miss a couple of weeks with a quad injury suffered in the first quarter.

Dew, hoping to regain Touk Miller for Saturday's home clash with North Melbourne, admits Gold Coast need to conjure a victory to ensure morale of the group doesn't dip.

"We've been able to keep the spirit of the group going, based on our competitiveness in games, but there comes a tipping point where we need to get a win," Dew said.

"To give them that real reward for effort. We weren't near it today."