The Gold Coast SUNS back six found themselves under siege at times against Melbourne last weekend, with costly turnovers through the middle of the ground making life tough for the defenders.
 
Gatekeepers of the defensive key posts, Rory Thompson and Steven May, had their work cut out for them with Melbourne pair Jesse Hogan and Jack Watts attracting plenty of the ball.
 
On a disappointing day across the board, Thompson revealed SUNS defensive coach Dean Solomon found positives in the way the back six moved the ball at times. Although, poor skill execution at times proved to be very costly, with a handful of goals the result of turnovers inside defensive 50.
 
“More of our offensive ball movement, we were setting up pretty good all day, we actually moved the ball pretty well at times, but then just maybe one poor kick wasn’t executed properly and that really hurt us,” Thompson told SUNS TV.
 
“We just weren’t quite there, if we just finish off those last targets, I think we would have looked a lot better.”
 
After a stringent review of the shortcomings against the Demons, Thompson explained that the side had identified areas for improvement. And now, has put the Melbourne game behind them and were preparing for St Kilda.
 
“We spent a fair bit of time the last few couple of days reviewing it, going over all the areas we need to improve on – what worked well, what didn’t work well,” Thompson said.
 
“So I think we’re just about over that stage and now we’ll start looking forward to St Kilda now.”
 
Thompson endured a frustrating summer in Carrara with a couple of nagging injuries threatening to derail the start of his season.
 
Fortunately, the Southport product returned on the eve of the season, and after two games alongside the new look back six that now includes Nick Malceski and Adam Saad, Thompson believes it will take a little bit of time to build cohesion with his new teammates.
 
“I think it will (take some time to build synergy), especially for me, I’ve missed a fair bit of the pre-season and the NAB Cup,” he said.
 
“I haven’t had much game time with the new boys, the more we can play together the better that synergy will be.”