MELBOURNE is counting the cost of a bruising encounter against the Gold Coast on Saturday, with defender Michael Hibberd suffering a broken collarbone and Jake Melksham spraining his foot during the Demons' thrilling one-point victory.

Hibberd sat out the second half after a heavy collision with Suns co-captain David Swallow in the second term, while Melksham hobbled off with a foot issue in the final quarter.

Veteran Jordan Lewis also came off for treatment in the second quarter after hurting his ankle, and Melbourne coach Simon Goodwin praised his side's resilience in overcoming its injury woes. 

"It was a bit of the walking wounded out there in the second half. (Hibberd) has broken his collarbone, so he'll go in for surgery probably tomorrow," Goodwin said.

"[Lewis] has got an ankle and Melksham's got a sprained foot. So those guys will be assessed during the week but those two guys really fought on for us during the game, we needed them out there.           

"We fought on manfully as the game went on, with very limited rotations."

Gold Coast looked to have secured victory after Nick Holman kicked a goal to put the Suns six points up with 40 seconds left, but Melbourne would not wilt.

Six-gamer Marty Hore kicked a goal from 50m out to level the scores with just 18 seconds remaining, then forward Tom McDonald's soccered attempt crashed into the goalpost in the dying seconds to give the Demons a thrilling win.

Goodwin said it had been a "crazy last minute".

"To play a goal down, needing two scores, it's a big margin to catch up and to the players' credit, they were really clear on what they needed to do," he said.

"It's something we've practised before, and worked on as a club and they executed it very well but it was a crazy 40 seconds, especially that last 10 seconds."

The last-gasp win keeps the Demons' season alive with a 3-5 record and Goodwin said there were signs his side would be able to turn their disappointing start to the year around.

"It's incredibly important to get our season rolling and continuing to improve," he said.

"That's what we've really been focused on the last two to three weeks, really establishing ourselves about what we want to stand for and that was around the contest and the defence and once again that was really sound tonight.

"So we've started … to really re-establish ourselves in those phases but we know we've still got a lot of work to do."