HE DIDN'T quite crack a smile, but there was enough in Gold Coast's loss to Adelaide to please coach Rodney Eade.

For the third match in succession the Suns finished with just 20 players after Darcy MacPherson (medial ligament) and Callum Ah Chee (concussion) were taken off in the second and third quarters respectively.

But despite being horribly undermanned to begin with, and then the mid-match setbacks, Eade said his team battled hard in the 75-point loss. 

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It was easily their most consistent performance in a month that has contained hidings from Geelong, Melbourne and Greater Western Sydney.

The development of Peter Wright (three goals), Sam Day's continual excellence in defence, Jack Martin's improvement at half-back and the defensive shutdown jobs of Keegan Brooksby and Jarrod Harbrow were all mentioned by Eade.

Aside from a 15-minute burst to start the second quarter where the Crows waltzed the ball from centre clearance after centre clearance to kick six of seven goals, the Suns tried valiantly. 

"Overall I was really pleased with our effort, I thought we really dug in," Eade said.

"We lost the last quarter by a point and missed two easy shots, were two players down, so I thought we dug in really well.

"There's a lot of basic errors we made and we gave them a lot of ball from our mistakes but I thought it wasn't through lack of effort.

"It could have been easy to drop their heads, but they didn't."

Five talking points: Gold Coast v Adelaide

MacPherson and Ah Chee have added to a catastrophic injury toll that already includes captain Gary Ablett, David Swallow, Jaeger O'Meara, Rory Thompson, Adam Saad and Aaron Hall among others.

But there's some light at the end of the tunnel, with Eade expecting to get some troops back against West Coast next week.

Steven May will return from his five-week suspension, while Ablett, Thompson, Hall and Touk Miller could all be available.

Eade said getting some quality midfielders back could only help stand-in skipper Tom Lynch, the impressive Wright and defenders Day, May and Thompson. 

Watch Rodney Eade's full post-match press conference

"Everyone says it every week, it’s (midfield) where it’s going to be won or lost," he said. 

"If you win in the midfield, your forwards are getting access to the footy and your defenders are not having the ball down there.

"We’ve been losing the midfield because of the players we’ve had in there, so it makes it hard for the forwards and it makes it really difficult for the backs. 

"So once we can get those four or five blokes back in the midfield there’s no doubt Sam and Peter and Tom can have a real good look at it."