THERE'S no reason for Damien Hardwick to panic, but some alarm bells would be ringing for the Gold Coast coach with the early-season performance of his vaunted midfield.
Following last year's maiden finals appearance and big wins over Geelong, West Coast and Richmond to start 2026, the Suns were widely regarded as one of the premiership fancies.
However, losses to Melbourne and Sydney in the past fortnight have raised a few questions, particularly around the middle of the ground.
Hardwick has called out his midfielders following both losses, saying the Swans "outhunted" his team in Gather Round, winning the contested possession count by 16 and the tackles by a whopping 45.
This came six days after the Demons thrashed the Suns in clearances (+11), contested possessions (+22) and tackles (+5).
Between matches, Gold Coast's midfield had stayed behind following the team's Tuesday training session, putting in an extra 20 minutes of centre bounce work to address an issue it already knew was bubbling.
With captain Noah Anderson, Brownlow medallist Matt Rowell, Norm Smith medallist Christian Petracca and two-time All-Australian Touk Miller at the feet of high-class ruckman Jarrod Witts, it's a part of the ground the envy of many opponents.
Wil Powell has moved from half-back into the rotation, while youngsters Will Graham and Bailey Humphrey also see the odd centre bounce attendance.
Something is a little off so far, but let's get the gaping caveat out of the way.
With Anderson to miss Saturday's home game against Essendon following an operation to remove his appendix, Gold Coast is still yet to see its preferred trio of he, Rowell and Petracca on the field at the same time.
From a continuity standpoint, it's been far from ideal, but that was the beauty of attracting Petracca from Melbourne in the off-season – you'd always have class in the centre square regardless of who was available.
Through five games, which isn't everything, but is also enough of a sample to draw some conclusions, statistics provided by Champion Data highlight the concerns.
Aside from centre bounce score differential, where the Suns are still elite, almost every other metric has seen them fall from the top half of the League in 2025 to the bottom four so far in 2026.
They are ranked 14th for first possession differential, 16th for both pre-clearance contested possession and groundball differential and just 17th for clearance differential.
In simple terms, Gold Coast can't win the ball before, or at, the clearance.
Not only that, but the Suns are ranked dead last in pre-clearance pressure, again highlighting the struggles they're having right at the coalface.
Hardwick's words rung loud following Sydney's 32-point win on Saturday.
"Contest-wise they were just cleaner than us," he said. "We couldn't exert enough pressure on them. Contested ball and tackle numbers paint a story."
Rowell is just two games back from a broken hand he suffered in February's State of Origin game and is slowly finding his form, while Petracca and Humphrey will return against the Bombers after being sidelined for the two losses.
Speaking earlier in the week, Rowell said the midfield group was acutely aware of its early-season shortfalls.
"There's just a bit of a gap at the moment between us and some of the best sides with our contest work and we're not shying away from that," Rowell said.
"That's what we've identified the past two weeks. We just haven't been consistent enough in the contest against Melbourne and Sydney.
"We haven't been up to it the past two weeks and we know we're better than that.
"We need to rise to the level, and we want to make sure we get that right against Essendon."