SUNS captain David Swallow says there are no excuses for the team’s first-half performance against the Western Bulldogs on Saturday night but has backed the club to respond in Round 6.

The SUNS had no answers for the Bulldogs in the opening half but were able to hit back in the third quarter to keep the contest alive which Swallow said was important to see.

“It was disappointing the way we weren’t able to get the game on our terms,” Swallow said post-match.

“We haven’t really showed that all year and we just weren’t able to stop the Bulldogs momentum.

“But we came in at halftime and were really confident that if we could get our game going that we could wrestle some momentum back.

“We had a good third quarter and we finished the game off quite strongly but it was a disappointing first half.”

Round 6 provides another great opportunity for the club in what will be a tough challenge against an in-form Sydney team.

Swallow said it would be a good matchup between the two sides, but the SUNS needed to play a consistent brand of football. 

“It starts with our contest and we’ve got to be a consistent four-quarter team,” he said.

“We can’t have lapses in games and we saw tonight if we have lapses for a half, you can’t play AFL footy like that.

“So it will really start with our contest and we really want to play a hard brand.

“We know that Sydney bring that every week so it’s a perfect opportunity for us to bounce back.”

The match against the Swans at Metricon Stadium gets underway at 1:45pm.