It was a fairytale start and a nightmare ending in Gary Ablett's first game against his former Geelong teammates at Metricon Stadium on Saturday night.

The Gold Coast skipper, who defected to the fledgling AFL side this year, proudly led the Suns to an unexpected 11 point halftime lead only to see them capitulate to a 21.13 (139) to 10.13 (73) loss.

The Suns' early lead was built on hard running and quick transition from defence to attack against the shell-shocked Cats who were having enormous trouble at ground level tracking Gold Coast's creative forwards.

The undefeated Cats overcame their indifferent start though to put the result beyond doubt late in the third term with an eight goal to one quarter.

The third term major was the Suns' only joy after the long break which was bitterly disappointing since they put up such a great fight for the first two quarters.

The Cats then followed with a similarly dominant final term to sour the grand opening of the stadium for the Suns which attracted a crowd of 21,485.

Cats forwards James Podsiadly (four goals) and Steve Johnson (seven goals and 29 disposals) exposed the Suns' brittle and under-sized defence.

Ablett's influence in the opening stages was instrumental in the Suns racking up four consecutive first quarter goals and a second term rearguard action after they were headed in time-on.

Several former Cats premiership teammates roughed up the Brownlow medal winner but it neither broke his concentration nor spirit.

He racked up his usual number of disposals as he has done against any opposition so the sense of occasion - his first against his former club and the first AFL match at the rebuilt Carrara stadium - made no difference to his approach.

The Suns should take a lot out of their opening effort and that of code-hopper Karmichael Hunt who was impressive in defence and kicked his first AFL goal with a 60m bomb late in the second quarter.

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