RODNEY Eade described his team's ball use as “horrific”, but said Saturday night's loss against St Kilda was a vast improvement on the previous week's against Melbourne.

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Eade lamented Gold Coast's deplorable effort against the Demons seven days earlier, but was in a far better mood after losing to the Saints, despite trailing by as much as 53 points during the third quarter.

WATCH: Rodney Eade's full post-match press conference

The Suns' coach said the effort was generally there this week and he was pleased with a second half fightback when it would have been easier to throw in the towel.

"Last week I thought there was 40 minutes of effort, tonight I thought there was 90 minutes of good effort," Eade said.

"Just our skill level burnt us.

"I was pleased … with their willingness to roll the sleeves up after half-time. I thought they hung in really well."

St Kilda put the game to bed with a stunning eight goals to one second quarter, which was riddled with Gold Coast turnovers and poor ball use.

Nick Malceski and Harley Bennell turnovers led directly to goals, but they had plenty of mates.

Eade said there were numerous areas to improve on, but he wasn't overly concerned just yet, despite the 0-2 start.

"There's quite a few things we need to change," he said.

"The skill level has been bad, we've worked heavily on it over summer, but we need to keep working hard.

"I went into the job with eyes open. I knew there were quite a few things we needed to work on.

"If that means our win-loss ratio goes backwards, it goes backwards.

"We're not building to finish eighth, ninth or 10th, we're building to challenge to the top two or three."

To cap off a sour night for the Suns, elusive midfielder Jarrod Harbrow suffered a subluxed shoulder in his 150th game that will sideline him for a number of weeks.

Eade said Harbrow would have scans on Monday to determine the extent of the injury.