SUNS Senior Coach Stuart Dew has challenged his players to respond this week after a lacklustre performance against Brisbane in the QClash on Saturday night.

Dew said the team “failed to compete” against last year’s preliminary finalists and had to work hard now to restore its reputation.

“We let ourselves down, we definitely would have lost some trust within the competition and with our supporters,” Dew said.

“We’re working hard on building consistency but that just fell away tonight so we have to take it personal, we failed to compete.

“Some gains that were there will now get questioned so we have to front up and take it on the chin and look to this week.

“There's two choices we can fall away, between now and the bye, or we can we can get back on track. Immediately.”

The SUNS were simply outclassed by a rampant Brisbane Lions outfit, and Dew said he had to play a role personally in helping the team through what would be a challenging week.

“It is disappointing, no doubt, but we need to pick our heads up,” Dew said.

“Leaders within the club, of which I'm one of, need to lead the way out of it and be really strong in that.

“(We need to) get to our players, support the players, they’ll be looking for strong direction so we need to make sure we provide that.”

“We can't feel sorry for ourselves… that needs to drive us this week.”

The SUNS take on Geelong next Saturday at 2:10pm at GMHBA Stadium.