Christian Petracca (three goals, 25 disposals) starred in his return from injury while Matt Rowell (35 touches) was dominant in his first pairing with the Demons recruit at Carrara.
But still their midfield was undone 37-29 at clearances - 20-15 at centre bounces - by a Bombers side that twice rallied to lead, before falling 17.17 (119) to 17.8 (110) in front of 19,039 fans on Saturday.
Darcy Parish (30 disposals) had 11 clearances of his own as Brad Scott's side - the league's last-ranked clearance outfit - threatened to follow up last week's drought-breaking defeat of the Demons that stopped a run of 17 straight losses.
There was eventually relief for the Suns, who overcame the Bombers' impressive pressure to improve to 4-2 after the midfield was beaten in two consecutive losses.
While Hardwick agreed there was work to be done at ground level and in scrimmages, he said inconsistencies around the holding the ball rule created danger and uncertainty.
"It's like chook lotto .... don't know half the time what's going to happen," Hardwick said.
He pointed to Rowell and Bailey Humphrey both being pinged, despite having limited opportunities to dispose of the ball.
"Waiting for it to be called for a stoppage, or the other option is a dump tackle," he said.
"Just blow the whistle (for a ball-up); it's like we've completely gone away from secondary stoppages because we think it kills the game.
"Unless there's been a rule change, let me know.
"I don't want to get angry, it's Saturday, I want to go home and have a beer and relax on the couch. But let's just fix it.
"The inconsistency is going to drive us insane."
Essendon kicked four of the last five goals of the first half to lead, and then three straight to build a two-goal lead after the hosts had again steadied after the break.
Four Suns goals in six minutes leading into three-quarter time, and a Lachie Weller special from the pocket after the break, again appeared to set the hosts on their way.
Like clockwork the Bombers responded though, Thomas Edwards' second, Nate Caddy's mark and goal and Sullivan Robey's second making it a one-point game with 13 minutes to play.
Weller kicked another, curling a snap from right-to-left, before the teams combined for eight behinds, including one in the final 10 seconds from Peter Wright that denied the Bombers one last shot at an unlikely win.
Archie Roberts had 34 touches for the Bombers while Zach Merrett kicked a goal and made eight tackles to go with his 34 disposals.
"When you have (Touk) Miller, Rowell, Petracca … when we had some momentum in the game I thought that trio were pretty important for the Gold Coast," Bombers coach Scott said.
"A couple of terrific individual efforts got them back in it."
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