A SHOCK loss to Gold Coast on Saturday has Sydney coach John Longmire ruing his side’s recent habit of slow starts.

The Swans have been behind at quarter-time in six of eight matches so far this season, and while they have been able to stage comebacks in some games, they left their run too late against the Suns in round eight.

"We’ll go back and try and put a finger on it, we just lacked that energy early in the game,” Longmire said post-match.

SWANS v SUNS Full match coverage and stats

"You’ve got to make sure you match the opposition with their level of intensity, and we didn’t get going for a long time.

"We know, we try to look at things we do in the lead-up … I don’t know if it’s on the back of the six-day breaks that we’ve had, and we’ve had a numerous amount of those … It’s not an excuse but do we get that part of it right?

"Whatever you do during the week, you have to come to compete first-up.

"Last week (against Brisbane) I thought we did, we just didn’t execute.

"Overall, we’ve got to get out of the blocks better, no doubt."

Longmire’s Gold Coast counterpart Stuart Dew was rapt with the way his side performed.

"We needed that one," he said with a smile post-game.

"I’m proud of their fight, obviously. At different times, our belief has never wavered internally.

"The pleasing thing for us tonight is the evenness across the group, sharing the load, which is really important to us… there are no egos in there [the midfield].

"It’s a day where it started to come together.

"I’ve sat here the last couple of weeks and said we’re so close but so far.

"We’ve still got some things we can improve on."

Key forward Jack Lukosius was subbed off during the game with a knee injury, but Dew said the 21-year-old had tweaked an existing knee injury and would be assessed during the week.

"He got through last week, so fingers crossed it's a week and we can just let it settle," he said.

"If there's a similar incident, it can just irritate the joint.

"He can also get through a game unscathed and pull up really well, like he did last week. It's a wait-and-see."