Gold Coast’s season is on a knife edge on the field, but the club face bigger issues off the field with Channel 7’s Tom Morris revealing the players and coach Damien Hardwick have a “strained” relationship.

The Suns made a hot start to the season with three big wins to immediately be installed as premiership favourites, and were still sitting pretty after Round 10 with a 7-3 record.

But things have since gone pear shaped with three consecutive losses to North Melbourne, Brisbane and Geelong.

The Suns have dropped to ninth place ahead of Friday night’s blockbuster against Hawthorn.

With a tough month to come, they now face a fight to even make the finals, let alone contend for the premiership.

Speaking on The Agenda Setters, Morris revealed it is a “tense environment” at the club.

“It’s my belief that (Hardwick’s) connection to his players and their connection to him is as strained as it’s been in his time at the club,” he said.

“It’s causing issues all over the place, both on the field and behind the scenes as well, from a contractual perspective.

“It’s not just Damien Hardwick the issue here, it’s also the players and the wider scope of Gold Coast.

“Some players are off the coach, and my belief is some members of the coaching panel are off the players as well. So this is a tense environment at the moment from both angles.

“The biggest internal problem facing the Gold Coast Suns is how they reconnect with each other after what has been a pretty ordinary three weeks.

“But strain doesn’t mean it’s unrecoverable either. Strain doesn’t mean that it’s gone forever. It just means at the moment it’s a very tense environment inside that football club for a number of reasons.

“And part of that is because they’re not listening to his messages, and that’s frustrating him as well.”

The future of Ben King appears to be creating a ripple through the club. Out of contract at the end of the season, King has yet to put pen to paper despite appearing set to sign a two-year extension.

7NEWS reporter Xander McGuire added: “Ben King is the biggest out-of-contract name in the game as it stands right now, and his teammates, staffers, coaches at the club can’t understand why this two-year deal is taking so long to be signed.”

Bailey Humphrey’s future is also in the spotlight despite being contract until the end of 2028.

AFL greats Kane Cornes and Nick Riewoldt immediately took aim at the players, saying it’s an “embarrassing reflection” on them.

“As a player, when you’re at a poor club, you immediately look to blame someone. You forget to look at yourself,” Cornes said.

“And this is the problem with this playing group is that they’ve become comfortable for whatever reason, because there’s been some great individual awards and we’ve lauded them and said, look, premiership favourites this year, start the season well, and you get ahead of yourself.

“Now, the minute it goes off track, you refuse to show any sort of resilience, and you look to get in your small groups and to blame someone for the position that you’re in.

“And it sounds to me like the players are blaming the coach. Now, not to say that he doesn’t have major responsibility in this. Of course he’s got the majority of responsibility in this.

“But that is a pretty ordinary look if this is a playing group that is starting to make excuses about a coach that’s got three premierships in his trophy cabinet.

“This is an embarrassing reflection on the playing group, if that’s what it is.”

Riewoldt added: “We’re talking about a three-time premiership coach that came into this football club with a reputation for building culture, for hardening a group, talking about selflessness to be able to go on and win free flags.

“He took them to their first final series last year and finals win. And you’re telling me that the players are off him because, what, they think he can’t coach or they think they know better? Seriously, if that is accurate, where does this playing group get off?”

Meanwhile, Hardwick has been put on notice for his post-match comments about the umpiring.

Hardwick was fuming post-match and took aim at the umpires, claiming they were influenced by the crowd and the “Roman Colosseum” atmosphere at GMHBA Stadium.

That prompted a pointed phone call to Hardwick from AFL football operations boss Greg Swann. While Hardwick avoided a fine or a “please explain”, it is understood he accepted Swann’s point.

“It was like the Roman Colosseum,” Hardwick said post-match when asked about his frustrations.

“I reckon they (the umpires) were waiting for the crowd to do this one (thumb down) then, all of a sudden, free kick.

“At the end of the day it is what it is, home-ground advantage, we understand that, we know you’re up against it from the start, but a couple of them (free kicks) weren’t there.”