Greater Western Sydney coach Kevin Sheedy is upbeat his side won’t suffer the same fate Gold Coast did after their maiden AFL win.

The Suns posted their first victory, over Port Adelaide in round five, only to crash back to earth in jarring fashion the next week when Essendon piled on a league-record 15-goal first quarter en route to a 139-point thumping of the expansion side.

Sheedy noted it was hard to predict what would happen when his team clashed with Brisbane at the Gabba on Sunday, partly due to a raft of changes – including resting talented trio Devon Smith, Tom Bugg and Dylan Shiel.

“Well, we’re not playing Essendon this week, thank god. We’re playing them next week,” smiled Sheedy, who coached the Bombers for 27 seasons.

“Look, I don’t know. We’ll try our butts off and these kids are having a good go. And we’re convinced that doing the selection the way we are will keep the whole list pretty vibrant.

“I hope (there’s) not (a drop off). I think the reason we won last week is that we put five new guys in.

“Now we’ve got another five back in so, hopefully, that will keep everybody on their toes.”

GWS defenders Matt Buntine and Sam Darley will play their first games on the weekend, making it 26 players to debut for the club.

“It’s important that we play well and win as many games as we can, and it’s also really important we blood as many players as we can,” Sheedy said.

“We were very competitive against Adelaide in the first half and, since then, we’ve been pretty good.”