It's not the reason Gold Coast lost, but a controversial 50m penalty in the third quarter crippled the Suns' momentum.
After Hawthorn had bounded away to a 46-point lead, Gold Coast had fought hard to cut the margin back to nine points in the third to set up a tight contest. But a 50m penalty against Jarrod Witts for running off the mark when he was called to stand led to a Tom Barrass goal and the start of a six goals to none run.
The decision was made even harsher due to the fact Jamarra Ugle-Hagan was also standing the mark, but the umpire didn't use a player's name when calling to stand. The Suns failed to kick a goal after the incident 26 minutes into the third quarter.
Hawthorn ran out 49-point winners, so the call didn't lose the game for Gold Coast, but Suns coach Damien Hardwick said post-match that his players are struggling to figure whether to stand or not in some situations.
"They are (finding it tough with the rule)," he said.
"We went through three examples that the AFL sent to us that these should be 50, there was one clear that we thought, 'Yeah, that's what the rule was brought in for' and there were two others that, it's just causing confusion. The Max Gawn-Ben Miller one last night I tried to clarify that with the umpires before the game and everyone has got a different interpretation.
"From what I can gather is the umpire has called stand, so Jamarra and Jarrod are standing. Then Jarrod decides to leave because he says, 'Move out', and then all of a sudden it's a 50. Common sense just has to prevail at some stage.
"The game is hard enough for the umpires to do at present with the holding the ball stuff and now this manning the mark stuff, so can we just simplify it? I don't know what that looks like but someone needs to take charge."
Ugle-Hagan returned to the AFL arena for the first time since 2024, kicking the Suns' second goal of the game before being swamped by teammates.
Hardwick said his new key forward had a "promising" start to his life as a Sun.
"(Ugle-Hagan) kicked a nice goal and set up a couple," he said.
"He will get better as the season progresses. He will start to take those marks, he probably had a couple today that didn't quite stick, but I thought he was good, he looked dangerous. Once again, he is only going to get better. This is as bad as he will be, but he will build into the season quite nicely."
