Zach Tuohy says the Cats cannot afford to get complacent ahead of their round 10 clash against the Suns at Metricon Stadium on Saturday night.

Currently sitting a game clear on top of the AFL ladder with eight wins and one loss, the trip to the Gold Coast will be Geelong’s first since defeating Adelaide in round three and Tuohy believes it has come at a good time.

“I’m just not sure there are any gimmes, is there?” Tuohy said speaking to the Geelong Advertiser.

“It might be a good time, get out (of Geelong), something a bit different, play a hugely enthusiastic young group that if you’re not switched on, you’ll get found out. Again, I don’t know if it’s a good time or not, it’s hard to say.”

Despite what appeared to be a comfortable win against the Bulldogs last round, Tuohy admits the Cats ‘weren’t great’ and they need to improve to continue their winning form.

“They were maybe the better side for big periods of the game, but good sides win when they’re not playing well.”

“You don’t need to be playing your best right now, but it would still be nice if we were.”

One of Geelong’s strengths has been their accurate kicking for goal, but Tuohy stressed that this will change at some point and they cannot rely on this as a point of difference in every game.

“It’s only a matter of time we kick 2.4 instead of 4.2 and the game looks a little bit iffy.

“We’ll take it, we’re happy, but there’s plenty to work on."

One of those improvements is inside, with the 171-game Cat flagging the importance of winning the contested ball with the new rule changes.

“I don’t think you have to look too hard at our game to see what we need to improve. We’re certainly happy to be where we are and not sitting bottom, but the areas we need to improve are clear.”

“Winning it out of the middle now is more important than it’s ever been because of the rule and that’s great, and that should suit us, we think we’re a really good contested side, but right now the last couple of weeks we’ve probably let ourselves down in that area,” he said.

“They got it going forward, I’m not sure what the time in forward-half numbers were, but one of those quarters it felt like it was 90 per cent in our back half.”

Saturday’s night game at Metricon Stadium kicks off at 7.25pm.