FORMER Geelong assistant Ken Hinkley says the Cats' defence has improved under new coach Chris Scott.

Hinkley was an understudy to Geelong's previous coach Mark Thompson for six years, a time that yielded two premierships in 2007 and 2009.

He is now an assistant at Gold Coast and the two time All Australian believes Scott's impact at Skilled Stadium has been significant.

"They're defensively better," Hinkley said.

"They're restricting sides better with their scoring. It's always been a strength of Geelong's to defend well, but I think they've tightened that area up a little bit."

Geelong are conceding an average of 75 points per match - the second lowest in the League behind Collingwood's 69.

Although their big test will come in the finals, Hinkley says the Cats are going every bit as well as previous years.

On Saturday Geelong face Hinkley's new club the Suns, who will be without injured skipper and former Cats favourite Gary Ablett.

Ablett travelled to Melbourne on Thursday to support the Suns, while the rest of the team completed its final training session at Metricon Stadium on Friday morning before flying south.

Despite playing without Ablett (hamstring) and travelling to a venue where their opposition has won 28 straight, Hinkley said the Suns would not be daunted.

"We're in a development club and we need to make sure we look at every game as an opportunity to develop further," he said.

"They have a great side, it's a different ground and they play it really well. They're one of the few clubs that get their own home ground advantage."

The teams met earlier this season in round 10 and the Suns sprung a huge surprise in the first half to lead by 11 points at the major break before wilting badly to lose by 66.

Hinkley said Gold Coast had shown they could compete, but now needed to do it for four quarters.

"We've been able to compete at stages and we know we can do that for parts of games and we just want to see that continually grow," he said.

Michael Whiting covers Gold Coast news for afl.com.au. Follow him on Twitter: @mike_whiting