The Rodney Eade era took a significant step forward against Fremantle on Saturday afternoon. In uncharacteristically wet and miserable conditions, the Gold Coast SUNS fought bravely from siren to siren, falling just short against ladder leaders Fremantle by seven points at Metricon Stadium.
 
The gulf in experience and talent has been a common denominator in recent weeks against Hawthorn, Sydney and Fremantle, but the endeavour gauge reached unprecedented levels to keep the SUNS in the contest for the duration of the game.
 
Effort and intent have been two key non-negotiables that Eade has demanded since taking the reigns at his third club and they have never been executed more comprehensively than on Saturday afternoon against Ross Lyon’s side.
 
With more than half a dozen of his best players sidelined through injury, the odds were stacked against his side, but the greatest victories are wrung from the greatest adversities. Although falling just short of acquiring a second win of the season, Eade was thrilled by the effort against such an accomplished side who were coming off their first loss of the season and hungry for vengeance.
 
“I thought the effort was fantastic. I couldn’t have asked for anymore from them to be honest,” Eade told reporters after the seven point loss.

“I think playing against the best team in the competition, (who were) coming off a loss, we know how many great players they’ve got and they’ve got a good system. For us to stay in the game for as long as we did to give ourselves the chance.
 
“I was really pleased about their effort, head over the ball, pressure tackling was terrific, follow instructions, the plan we had was great and then to do it for so long - to be able to hang in the game, I think we were out on our feet a bit.
 
“With so many runners out we were just hanging in there, but they showed a bit of grit. We’ve seen so much growth in our younger players.”
 
The former Western Bulldogs and Sydney Swans mentor suggested the four-quarter performance was the SUNS' best performance of the season, with the win against Brisbane ‘papering over some of the cracks’.
 
Against such a star-studded line up, particularly in the midfield where the SUNS were most vulnerable, an even spread of contribution across every line demonstrated the importance of everyone buying in to the mantra.
 
“For constant and consistent effort across the board, there weren’t many passengers,” Eade said.
 
“We’ve got to do that consistently now. We’ve got to retrieve something out of the last half of the year. I think they’ve seen the light about where we’re headed, what we’re trying to achieve and I think by weight of numbers, guys are buying in.”