Swans reserves coach Henry Playfair said last Saturday’s 79-point loss to the Gold Coast Suns at Metricon Stadium had given him a fresh perspective on his top-of-the-table team.

Playfair admits he was disappointed that his side suffered its first defeat of the season - also his first as a coach - but said there were plenty of areas to work on from the game.

“There is a big list of ten things I’ve written down that came out of the game, now it’s how we respond to get those right,” Playfair told sydneyswans.com.au.

“I think that was the good thing that came out of the game, that it exposed a lot of things that haven’t been exposed so far this year, a lot of things we’ve let slide, and a lot of things we need to work on.

“We’ll learn from it and move on and improve, and that’s what good sides do - they look at how they lost and why they lost, and work on it and get better.”

After beating the Suns reserves by 92 points in the only previous meeting between the two teams back in May, Playfair said he was impressed by the progress they had made in such a short period of time.

“Their pressure was really good and it put us under a lot of heat, especially early in the game,” he said.

“I heard their coach, Shaun Hart, during the week mention they’ve improved a lot since we played them last time, and that was certainly evident on the weekend.

“They dominated pretty much the whole game, which is a real credit to them.”

Playfair highlighted the efforts of Mark Seaby, Byron Sumner, Jesse White and Campbell Heath in the loss, but said the effort from the entire team wasn’t evident when the game was there to be won in the first half.

“(In our review) we really focused on the first half when we did have 18 fresh guys on the field ready to go, and we didn’t perform,” Playfair said.

“I mentioned before the game that it was probably our biggest challenge of the year - going up there, playing a good side with plenty of AFL listed players and plenty of talent - and we got a disappointing result in the end from our players.”

The Swans reserves return to the SCG at 9.40am this Sunday to take on the NEAFL Eastern Conference’s fourth-placed team, Eastlake, ahead of the seniors’ crucial game against Fremantle.

“That’s the best thing about footy, you get a chance to improve on what you didn’t do so well or what you’ve done well,” Playfair said. 

“We’ll have another look at (the Gold Coast game) tomorrow and certainly the boys will be ready to play come Sunday - all the supporters should get out here.”