Monday morning at Metricon Stadium means game reviews as SUNS players and coaches dissected the 71-point loss to Collingwood on the weekend.

Driven by the club’s leadership group, the key message was the general lack of effort from the 22 that took the field with assistant coach Ashley Prescott admitting the SUNS were too soft against the Magpies.

“The players took most of it, actually, which was really positive,” Prescott told reporters on Monday.

“They’ve taken ownership again and it’s come down to baseline effort.

READ: Lemmens 'lucid' after heavy hit

“We were too soft. We were too soft at the footy, we were too soft on the opposition and when you do that sides get a bit of a leg-up.

“Collingwood were just able to break tackles too easily, move the ball too easily so we need to address those things and work on them.”

This Saturday night’s round 23 clash against Port Adelaide provides one last opportunity for Gold Coast in 2016 and while it would be quite easy to put the cue in the rack after two disappointing losses, that won’t be the case.

“The club and the group in general have been fantastic for a lot of the year and really given their best so it’s really important we come up here in front of our home fans and supporters and put in a really solid performance,” Prescott said.

“If we don’t win the game, sometimes you don’t do that in football, but we just need to play four quarters of really solid SUNS football.

“If we do that, we’ll give ourselves a real chance.”

READ: Port game a dress reheardal for 2017

Following Steven May’s comments this weekend’s curtain call will be a dress rehearsal for 2017, Prescott echoed those sentiments with the game providing another opportunity for the club’s emerging players to prove their credibility as AFL footballers.

“Every opportunity you’ve got, whether it’s on the training track, in the gym or on game day is to prove yourself and prove yourself credible as an AFL player,” Prescott said.

“There’s an enormous challenge. We’re not rolling over, this is a really important game for the football club that we bounce back.”