OF ALL the injury woes to hit Gold Coast in the past two seasons, last weekend's events might have been the lowest of the low.
Losing captain Gary Ablett and "heart and soul" leader Michael Rischitelli for the remainder of 2016 is a gut-punch the Suns could ill-afford at this delicate stage of their development.
They will enter Saturday night's match in Cairns against contested-ball animals the Western Bulldogs with a competitive, yet severely undermanned, midfield.
No Ablett, Rischitelli, Jaeger O'Meara or David Swallow. Let's not forget Ablett won the Brownlow in 2013, O'Meara the Rising Star the same year, and Swallow was the 2014 Club Champion. These are players of the highest ilk.
Dion Prestia has a knee niggle and is in doubt, although if there's one thing the prolific Prestia has shown this season, it's that he can play with pain – and play damn well.
Regardless of how you rank the Suns' midfielders, that's one – and possibly none – of their best five mids on the field on Saturday night.
Prestia, Jesse Lonergan, speedy Aaron Hall and Touk Miller will battle hard and are capable of mixing it with the vaunted Dogs' centremen, but there comes a "tipping point", as coach Rodney Eade has put it so many times this year.
Compare the Suns to some other midfields in 2015 and 2016 and the point is illustrated well.
Rischitelli (33 games) has been the glue over that period, but now won't play for 12 months.
Ablett will have played just 20 of the first 44 games Eade has coached, Prestia has played 22 of 37, while Swallow (six) and O'Meara (zero) have barely contributed, although the latter is due to return in the next fortnight.
So far, that's a grand total of 81 of a possible 185 games played (44 per cent) by the core group.
Let's compare that to some other teams.
The Sydney Swans have been in the top four that entire period and played 39 games.
Dan Hannebery has played them all, while Josh Kennedy (38), Luke Parker (34), Kieren Jack (37) and Tom Mitchell (34) have also barely missed a beat. They’ve played 93 per cent of those games.
North Melbourne, a preliminary finalist last year and currently eighth this year, have played 40 matches over the past two seasons.
Their core midfield of Jack Ziebell (39), Daniel Wells (13), Nick Dal Santo (29), Ben Cunnington (38) and Shaun Higgins (31) have played 75 per cent of matches.
With a few absentees in recent weeks – only Cunnington and Ziebell played in last week's loss to West Coast – the effects have been obvious.
How about Port Adelaide, a team outside the top eight both years and one the Suns could conceivably expect to match with a healthy list?
Travis Boak has played all 37 games, while Robbie Gray (33), Hamish Hartlett (35), Brad Ebert (37) and Ollie Wines (28) have combined for 92 per cent availability.
Could you imagine Port's results if only two or three of these players was consistently on the park?
Looking at those teams alone, it's difficult to accurately assess Gold Coast's performance over two years, let alone 2016.
It's a problem for the Suns in terms of assessing their own development, but also out-of-contract pair Prestia and O'Meara, who will be trying to weigh up how bright the future is at Metricon Stadium.
Just how strong the midfield is in 2017 is anyone's guess, but if there's such thing as a footy God, they'll smile on the Suns after two seasons of injury luck you wouldn’t wish on your worst enemy.
