AN INACCURATE Gold Coast has slugged out aneight-point win over Melbourne in front of an Easter Sunday crowd of 17,243 atthe MCG.

After trailing by one point at quarter-time,the Suns set up their win with a dominant second term that propelled them a20-point advantage at half-time.

However, their inability to make the most oftheir opportunities in front of goal kept the home side in the match.

The momentum swung several times throughoutthe final term, with the Demons cutting a 19-point three-quarter time deficitto two goals on three occasions, but Gold Coast, led by skipper Gary Ablett,was able to steady to win 11.20 (86) to 11.12 (78).

The victory gives the Suns a 3-2 start to theseason, the best in their short history, while the Demons are languishing withjust one win in the opening five rounds.

Gold Coast coach Guy McKenna admitted afterthe match the brand of football wasn't pretty in his side's second-ever win atthe MCG.

"There's certainly been a bit of talkabout us winning away from home," McKenna said.

"That's what you take out of it, you winugly, you win away from home, it's four points and we're 3-2."

Far from ugly was Ablett's performance as hecontinued his stellar record against the Demons, finishing with 32 disposalsand two goals as he guided the Suns to victory.

The dual Brownlow medalist has now played in16 winning teams from 20 games against Melbourne and has kicked 23 goals andpolled nine Brownlow Medal votes.

Melbourne fans would have had high hopes theclub could claim back-to-back wins for the first time since rounds 13 and 14,2011.

But it wasn't to be as Gold Coast bounced backhard from last week's 99-point defeat at the hands of Hawthorn to outplayMelbourne in almost every facet of the game.

The Demons won the hit-outs 40 to 37 butthat's where it stopped in the stats department, with Gold Coast winning allthe key areas, including clearances (by nine) - an area Melbourne has yet towin this season.

A controversial goal fromdefender-turned-forward James Frawley sparked Melbourne 's opening term.

Despite the video review system appearing toshow Gold Coast defender Rory Thompson fist the ball before it crossed thegoalline, the vision was deemed inconclusive, handing the Demons their firstgoal for the game.

Less than 30 seconds later Melbourne had itssecond through Chris Dawes, while Cam Pedersen gave the Demons a 10-point leadlate in the first term.

The Suns dominated the inside 50s but werewasteful from set shots in front of goal in the first term kicking 2.7 withAaron Hall kicking truly just before quarter-time to reduce the deficit to onepoint.

Gold Coast assumed control of the match in thesecond term to lead by 20 points at the long break but its advantage shouldhave been much more given it had 11 more inside 50s than the Demons in theopening half.

The Suns kicked 4.5, while Melbourne couldonly manage just the one major through Frawley as Dawes missed two crucialgoals mid-way through the quarter.

The Suns average six marks per game insidetheir forward 50 - the worst in the competition - but by half-time they hadnine with Tom Lynch kicking two goals from set shots after out-markingMelbourne defender Tom McDonald.

Melbourne coach Paul Roos said the second termdrop-off in defensive pressure and effort cost his side dearly.

"We went from 80-something tackles lastweek to 40 [this week]," Roos said after the loss.

"We've just got to keep driving minimumstandards. The lapses that we have as a club are just too great at the momentand having said that, the frustrating thing is that you go down by eightpoints. We've jut got to make sure our effort levels are consistent everyweek."

It was a much better effort from the Demons inthe third term as they lifted their intensity and were more effective withtheir ball use but they couldn't make any significant inroads.

Despite challenging the visitors throughoutthe final term, the Demons' challenge fell just short.