GEELONG coach Chris Scott has called for calm following his team’s 56-point Opening Round belting at the hands of Gold Coast on Friday night.

Missing star duo Patrick Dangerfield (calf) and Jeremy Cameron (quad), the Cats were blown off People First Stadium, conceding seven first quarter goals and never getting themselves into the contest.

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The deficit was as great as 85 points late in the third quarter, before last year’s runners-up reduced the margin in the final term.

Despite the heavy defeat, Scott seemed far from bothered in his post-match press conference.

“We’re pretty calm,” he said.

“It was obviously a really difficult night, but the most important thing for us is to take what we need to out of it and move forward.

“We won’t be over-reacting to one performance.”

Scott said Geelong was wary of Gold Coast’s firepower entering the match, and probably needed the Suns to be a “little bit off” to compete, but got the opposite.

Turnovers killed the Cats, leaving their backline on an island to defend waves on oncoming Suns.

“We’ve got to be careful we don’t make it (losing) bigger than it is,” Scott said.

“Often when you get beaten by that margin it can look like you’re getting slaughtered for effort and losing contest where you’re not quite strong enough.

“That did happen a bit, but so often we looked like we were going OK, skill error, and they burnt us more on the way back.

“I thought it was more of that that we’d be critical of as opposed to the real thirst for the contest.”

Scott said losing Dangerfield and Cameron snuck up on the Cats and forced a bit of juggling, but was not the reason for the loss.

"A few guys coming back will help, but it certainly won’t be the only answer," he said.

Gold Coast counterpart Damien Hardwick could hardly have had a more enjoyable start to his season, with boom recruit Christian Petracca best on ground in his first outing for the Suns.

They kicked seven goals in both the first and third terms, repeatedly forcing turnovers in the front half of the ground and converting them into scores.

“Any time you’re up by 85 points against one of the best sides in the competition for the last 20 years, you’re always thinking we’re going ok,” Hardwick said.

“The contest and defence at the back end of the third quarter was as good as I’ve seen since my time here.

“There’s a reason we went after him (Petracca).

“His ability to win the ball forward of centre, use the ball well forward of centre is exactly the reason we wanted to bring him to the footy club.

“He’s only going to get better.”

Despite still missing Brownlow medallist Matt Rowell (finger) for at least two more matches, Hardwick faces some difficult selection decisions ahead of Gold Coast’s next game against West Coast.

Jamarra Ugle-Hagan kicked five goals in a VFL practice match against Southport earlier on Friday to put his hand up to face the Eagles.

“He was jumping at the ball, contesting the ball, contesting at ground level, a chase tackle too, which was great,” Hardwick said.

“There’s no-one dying to get him in the side more than me, but what I want to make sure everyone understands is that I see this guy as a long-term prospect for our footy club so we want to make sure we have him absolutely cherry ripe so when he comes in, he’s ready to go.

“When he’s ready to go, we’re going to unleash him.

“It was a big step forward for him.”