Coast must address ball security to mix it with red-hot Bulldogs
GOLD Coast coach Stuart Dew says the Suns shot themselves in the foot against Carlton and urged his players to use the ball better if they hoped to compete with the red-hot Western Bulldogs this Saturday.
“We butchered the ball and gave it back to them far too often, we are actually hurting ourselves continually in pressure moments,’’ he said after the Round 4 9.16 (70) to 8.11 (59) loss at Metricon Stadium.
“They (players) keep coming but we haven’t got the job done.
“We kicked 4.4 (in the third term), we were on top again. It’s those momentum swings, but we weren’t able to arrest a couple of theirs as well.
“All technical stuff aside, I think our turnover stuff was really disappointing.
“When we tried to take the game on, at different times it worked, but other times we just missed easy targets and they are the ones that really sting, unpressured turnovers. We need to address that otherwise we are going to continually fall short.
“You can’t play like that against anyone to be fair, you won’t get it done. The Bulldogs, watched them today, impressive. They are fierce in the contest, they spread well, have some firepower up forward.
“We’ve got to pick ourselves up. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves. We stick together and get going.”
He said the Suns still had great belief in themselves.
“We’ve got to get over this hump. We haven’t as yet. We certainly feel like we are close. We are in the conversation,’’ Dew said.
“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 is that they are in the game. We certainly have to learn to win.
“I think Touk (Miller) said it during the week, we don’t want to be an almost footy club so it’s a good test for us and we think our group is really tight and up for it.”