BRANDON Ellis expects a "response" against St Kilda on Thursday night, but is preaching long-term patience as Gold Coast suffers some mid-season struggles.

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The Suns have lost four of their past five matches and put in a lifeless showing against Greater Western Sydney on Sunday, losing by 26 points.

But Ellis says the four-day break between matches is the perfect remedy to right the ship.

"The shorter the break the better after a bad loss like that," he said.

"We're a young group.

"It's going to be hard to be at 100 percent every single week because everyone is maturing at different rates, but we got a kick up the bum and we'll be on notice this week.

"I'll be expecting a far better performance from the group and I think we'll get a response."

Ellis has seen just about everything in his 184-game career.

He came into a Richmond team in 2012 that was near the bottom of the table, then played finals, fell again, and ultimately won two premierships.

He said building chemistry would take time and he was not concerned about another second half of the season fade-out.

Under Stuart Dew Gold Coast has gone 2-16 (2018) and 0-18 (2019) following promising opening months in the past two years.

The hard-running wingman said the Suns have to keep their progression in perspective.

"You've got to see where they come from last year," Ellis said.

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"They lost 18 games in a row, finished 18th. We're not going to go from 18th to the top four in one year.

"We've got to keep growing and improving as a group, which we've done this year.

"We'll keep going out there to compete and keep putting ourselves in every single game.

"We've got to keep a positive mindset, keep the belief up there because we've been in every single game this year, even on the weekend."

With the short break, the Suns went straight into a review after losing to the Giants.

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Ellis played once last year following a four-day break, when Richmond thumped Melbourne on the eve of ANZAC Day, where he contributed two goals from 22 disposals.

"The next three games (St Kilda, Essendon and Richmond) are huge," he said.

"We've got to go back to what we've been doing … our pressure and our hunt of the ball.

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"Leading into the Giants game we were the number-one pressure team in the competition and were right up there with contested ball, but we got beaten in both those areas, we were off.

"If you don't bring that strength every single week, which is ours, it's going to be hard to win.

"We have to go back to that, simplify it even more and build our game around that."