Neeld said he felt his charges had made genuine progress in recent weeks, but he acknowledged they went backwards against the Suns.
“Over the past three to four weeks, we felt we made some progress, particularly in that combative area and our ability to attack the opposition with the ball,” he said post-match.
“We felt that last week against the Blues – scoreboard aside, there was a certain fair percentage of the game where they were under pressure, and that wasn’t there today.
“We were aware that we made some ground over the last three or four weeks in terms of a number of areas of our game, but it was certainly a step back today.”
But Neeld said it wasn’t one of the worst performances he’d seen from his side.
“We weren’t competitive in the game for long enough - that eventually gets reflected in the scoreboard, and that was certainly the case in the first and third quarters,” he said.
“Effort can be defined or interpreted in a whole lot of ways.”
Neeld said his team did not handle Gold Coast’s body strength in the tackle.
“No doubt,” he said.
“[We were] not competitive enough for long enough, which is disappointing because we’d made some progress.
“There were a couple of setbacks today.”
