By Michael Whiting

Gold Coast SUNS captain Gary Ablett is no certainty to play against the Brisbane Lions on Saturday night despite beginning his recovery from a hamstring injury with light jogging.

Ablett travelled to Geelong with his GC SUNS teammates last weekend but was purely a spectator against his former team after injuring the hamstring against St Kilda in round 19.

GC SUNS coach Guy McKenna said Ablett had started jogging slowly late last week but was still a long way from proving his fitness for the second edition of the QClash.

"If there's any doubt we'll rule him out," McKenna said.

"He ran late last week but obviously not at a level he could play at. He was desperate to play, as he will be this week, but we need to take him up to a level where he's comfortable.

"If he's comfortable his box gets ticked and away he goes; if there's a cross there, he doesn't play."

With Lions captain Jonathan Brown and GC SUNS enforcer Campbell Brown already on the sidelines with injury, the game can ill-afford to lose the Brownlow medallist.

Both teams are languishing with 3-15 records with the Lions' superior percentage keeping them one spot higher in 15th place.

McKenna also hinted at resting ruckman Zac Smith, who he said looked tired against Geelong, but said he would give the NAB AFL Rising Star candidate every opportunity to play.

While the build-up to the first QClash in May drew antagonism from both sides, McKenna and coaching opponent Michael Voss decided to play the straightest of bats when they shared a press conference at the Gabba on Tuesday.

Before the round seven encounter, won by Gold Coast by eight points, Lion Simon Black stoked the fire by calling former teammate Jared Brennan a mercenary for switching camps, while McKenna retaliated by saying the Suns were "cleaning up the mess" left at Carrara by the Brisbane Bears in the early 1990s.

Voss said although there was a strong rivalry, saying this week's clash was the Lions' Grand Final was an exaggeration.

"Certainly these are unique games, they're rivalry games," he said.

"No matter where you are (on the ladder) there's always a good contest and I think that this will be the same.

"But we're still at a point where we're teaching our players about what it takes to be consistent to win four points and what it takes every week to do that. "

McKenna said there were similarities to Western Australia's Derby between West Coast, where he played 267 matches, and Fremantle.

"It's the battle for Queensland. It's going to grow in time, no different to what I've experienced at West Coast with Fremantle," he said.

"It is slightly different to West Coast and Fremantle because they're probably 5km away from one another where we're 70 or 80km away, but it's still the battle for Queensland and there's still bragging rights and those sorts of things."

Voss said he wanted to make Saturday night's match a contested game, rather than the shootout the teams played out last time.

"Last time we got beaten in the midfield badly so we have to have some attention to that area on the weekend because if the same thing happens, clearly the same result will happen," he said.

Voss confirmed defender Joel Patfull would miss the rest of the season with two breaks in his hand, but said the expected return of Josh Drummond should offset that.