Touk Miller admits it's a long shot but he hasn't given up hope of Gold Coast gatecrashing the AFL finals.
The Suns' hopes of a maiden finals appearance took a huge hit in their 17-point loss to Brisbane in a hard-fought Q-Clash on Saturday night.
It left Stuart Dew's side two wins and percentage behind the eighth-placed Western Bulldogs with four rounds left in the home-and-away campaign.
They now face a vital battle with West Coast at Metricon Stadium on Sunday and need other results to fall their way in the run home.
But co-captain Miller has been buoyed by the wildly unpredictable nature of the season so far, noting the door is still slightly ajar.
"It was really disappointing losing (to Brisbane) but we've got another four games to have a long shot at finals," Miller told reporters on Monday.
"You've just got to watch the footy week to week and it just feels like it's never ending with what can happen.
"The implications for any team at the moment in the top eight are becoming more and more drastic.
"We've got to keep our (sights) set high and hopefully we can still make it."
Gold Coast led the Q-Clash by seven points at three-quarter time before being overrun in an eighth straight defeat to Brisbane, who they haven't beaten since 2018.
Miller saw some signs in the competitive display that augur well for the coming weeks, when the Suns face the Eagles, Hawthorn, Geelong and North Melbourne.
"It wasn't the game that we wanted - obviously we wanted to win - but I thought we still played a really good brand of football for the majority of the game," Miller said.
"They probably broke us in the end, just in that last 10 minutes, but I think we came with a really good mentality that we wanted to be physical and make a bit of a statement.
"I thought we were able to do that but just unfortunately we were on the wrong side of the (result)."
