Gold Coast coach Stuart Dew has been rewarded for the Suns' improved form this season with a two-year contract extension.

Declaring "the best is yet to come", Gold Coast coach Stuart Dew has banished the spectre of Alastair Clarkson with a two-year AFL contract extension.

Dew will remain at the Suns at least until the end of 2024 and the new deal is a massive win for Dew and the club.

Dew started the season under intense pressure about his future, but the Suns are in the hunt for their first finals series.

After a wobbly 2-5 start, the Suns have won five of their last eight games with their losses in the last two matches less than a goal.

He is their longest-serving senior coach and will be in charge of his 100th game in round 18, having started in 2018.

Clarkson was the obvious elephant in the room amid media speculation about Dew earlier this year, given the Suns are yet to make the finals and the four-time Hawthorn premiership coach is potentially available.

But with his future secured, Dew is focussed on lofty goals.

"It's our goal to chase down 'firsts' for this football club. A first AFL finals campaign, winning our first AFL final and of course chasing our first premiership," he said.

"The job is not done, and the best is yet to come."

Dew said he weathered the intense scrutiny earlier this year by focusing on what he could control.

"The way our department and players have handled, I guess, that cloud has made me really proud and that's why I love this footy club," he said.

"Everyone's pretty quick to let you know (the speculation), but that doesn't actually stop. It's no different tomorrow as it was yesterday.

"Where I have really learned and grown is 'what can I control' and absolutely to do this job your focus has to be 100 per cent where it needs to be.

"Take your eyes off that for a second, I reckon that's when it gets you."

Club chairman Tony Cochrane, who has backed Dew fiercely, said they were confident from early last year they would re-sign him.

"This decision was really made back in early February, when ... we all sat down together," he said.

"We talked about what we wanted, as a group, out of the year and the real key word that still resonates from that discussion was 'progression'."

But Cochrane confessed to moments of doubt, saying it has been difficult to develop an expansion club.

"I would be dishonest if I didn't say of course, I had moments of 'are we sure?'" he said

"But that is part of just keeping your head and staying strong as a group and working through these things.

"You don't get stuck in the media story. You get stuck in what's happening between the four walls.

"This club has come an incredibly long way. It's so rock-solid now."

Dew's reappointment follows the re-signing this year of key players such as Ben King, Touk Miller and Jack Lukosius.