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Gold Coast SUNS youngsters have been given a licence to take more risks as they strive for an improved second season, says captain Gary Ablett.

Last season the fledgling club won three matches and finished with the wooden spoon, but the Brownlow medallist said there was only one way to make inroads.

"We want these boys to take risks and we know the result sometimes is going to be turnovers," Ablett said.

"I think it's important the more risks these boys do take, the more we're going to improve down the track.

"I think you'll see a pretty quick improvement this year.

"We've been doing a lot of training with our kicking over the pre-season and there's no doubt we've improved but when you first come into games the boys are always going to be a bit scratchy and miss a few targets but hopefully we can fix that up as the games go on."

Ablett will return for Gold Coast's final NAB Cup fixture on Saturday against the Sydney Swans at Blacktown.

The captain was rested for last week's 13-point loss against Greater Western Sydney, which left the Suns with a 1-3 pre-season record.

Ablett said there was no need to panic, and with such a young group, development took time.

He said the defensive side of their game was the hardest thing to learn.

"I think having such a young side, coming from under-18s footy where there's no defence, it's all about attack and getting out there and getting the ball, I think that's been the biggest change," he said.

"If you look at the most successful sides over the past few years, they've had a really good defence so we've been working on that really hard this pre-season and it's taken time but we're slowly getting there and there's no doubt we're slowly improving.

"We're disappointed in some of our performances.

"It doesn't happen straight away but I think if we're competitive and we play the way we want to play we're going to win a lot more games than we did last year and I guess that's our aim this year."