TRADE WARS: SUNS’ PLANS FOR AFLW RECRUITING PERIOD

GOLD Coast coach Stuart Dew says his Suns charges this season “are a far, far greater side than last year” but he will ring in the changes after a fourth loss in five matches.

After restarting the season with three straight wins, the Suns have now lost four from their past five games, a slump that coincided with No.1 draft pick Matt Rowell dislocating his shoulder.

The Suns started 2019 brightly before going on to claim the wooden spoon but after Gold Coast’s 26-point loss to GWS at Metricon Stadium on Sunday, Dew said he was confident a similar rot wouldn’t happen this year.

“I think we have been in all games right to the end,” he said.

“So we think we can win every game and even though we were really poor, we had one less shot against GWS who played in a grand final.

“I think our numbers suggest that we are a far, far greater side than last year and we are really confident.

“We just have to compete better than we did, that has been a feature of our game but we were really poor and credit to GWS.”

Dew has made minimal changes to his Suns side in recent weeks, but following the poor performance against the

Giants and with a fixture cram coming up, he said he would make numerous adjustments to the starting 22.

“There will be changes,” Dew said. “We were hoping to bring Sean Lemmens in but the birth of his daughter was too close to the game, he was going to come in this week.

“But given there will be a four-day break (for their next clash against St Kilda) and a poor performance we will make a couple of changes.”

Sam Collins, Connor Budarick – who spent time on Toby Greene before the GWS star sustained a serious hamstring injury – Jack Lukosius and Will Powell were singled out by Dew as players he was pleased with in the loss.

“They were lacking a few mates (out there),” he said. “We need to be a collective if we are to challenge these teams.”

Greene is likely to miss multiple games for the Giants.