The Gold Coast SUNS’ start to the season has been far from impressive to date, but despite a winless month, Rodney Eade remains resolute in his belief his side can turnaround its poor form.

With the SUNS now in their fifth season, internal and external expectations rose over the summer. Howver, four losses from four starts have put Gold Coast on the back foot in the early stages of 2015.

Saturday night’s 66-point loss to fellow expansion franchise Greater Western Sydney led Eade to question the spirit and effort of his players after a fourth straight loss to start his tenure at Metricon Stadium.

“I’ve certainly got confidence in that (SUNS can turnaround poor start). This was a bit of a setback today, a bit of a shock,” Eade told the media following the loss in Canberra.

“I thought the resilience at times could be questioned, probably late in quarters.

“They’re still 40-50 game players, but generally 40-50 game players at other clubs have got 200 game players around them.

“They have to carry the can, they have to develop that quickly. We’ve got some confidence we can do that.”

Despite Gold Coast’s underwhelming start to 2015, where consistency of effort across games has been questioned, Eade explained the education process was still paramount in his pursuit of success on the Gold Coast.

The former Western Bulldogs and Sydney Swans coach said in-form players in the NEAFL would be rewarded with opportunities in the senior side. His message was clear; effort and intensity will earn you a spot.

“There’s some holes there that we need to teach and we need to learn, and we need to educate,” Eade said.

“And I think the long term plan is obviously we’re not going to take our eye off the ball what we need to do to teach those players.

“Obviously there’s some players in the twos we’ll have to get in. There’s a couple that played well today that haven’t played a game and we’ll keep playing those guys and the ones that want to go the right way about it.”