Campbell Brown's certain scrutiny from the AFL match review panel will be a sour postscript for Gold Coast after their 71-point loss to the Western Bulldogs.

The Suns' hard man can expect to have a case to answer for at least one and probably two incidents at Etihad Stadium as the Bulldogs cruised to a 18.14 (122) to 7.9 (51) win on Saturday.

Brown sparked a melee in the first term when he laid a solid bump on Callan Ward well away from the goal.

Ward had to leave the field briefly.

Jarrad Grant then remonstrated with Brown, giving away a free kick at the next centre bounce, and a 50m penalty gave the Suns a gift goal, their first of the game.

During the second term, Brown appeared to make high contact with Barry Hall as the Bulldogs' key forward was close to the ground and trying to gain possession.

The match review panel has taken a dim view of that sort of high contact in the last few years.

Suns coach Guy McKenna said Brown had been spoken to him soon after the final siren.

McKenna added Brown had to make sure he did not miss games through suspension, but said the team had to be hard enough so the former Hawthorn utility did not feel he needed to be physical.

"We know what he provides for the footy side and the best place for him to provide that is on the field," McKenna said.

"There's an ownership of the rest of the group too, to make sure they put themselves on the line.

"Browny, if he has to or feel like he has to go out of his way to impart that physical presence, that says more about the rest of the group.

"I don't feel like he has to. I'm very encouraged by the way our fellows attack the footy and how hard they are, putting their heads over the ball and protecting their team-mates."

Bulldogs coach Rodney Eade said he was disappointed that his team gave away the free after Brown's contact with Ward.

Asked about the Brown-Ward incident, Eade noted "probably the cameras might catch that".

As the margin suggests, the Suns were much better than last week's forgettable debut, a 119-point loss to Carlton.

Overall, Eade was less than impressed with how the 'Dogs played and was particularly concerned about the clearances, which the Suns won 36-25.

"That was a real issue, especially early - the first quarter was diabolical," Eade said.

"We started to even up a bit by halftime, but in the end we still lost (the clearances).

"Some of our better players in there were very average and we've spoken about that."

One highlight for the 'Dogs was key forward Barry Hall, who kicked five goals for a career total of 701.

Hall is the 20th player to pass 700 goals.

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