'Brave' Suns take steps forward in AFLW

Gold Coast coach Cameron Joyce concedes his plucky side still have "plenty of work to do" if they are to seriously challenge for an AFLW finals spot this season.

The Suns boosted their growing reputation as a competitive outfit on Saturday night when they pushed premiership contenders Melbourne all the way at Casey Fields.

The physical contest featured a total of 178 tackles - the highest combined tally between two teams in the competition's history - and Joyce felt the "brave" performance was another step in the right direction that will give Gold Coast confidence.

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But the Suns ultimately came up short in the hard-fought 5.8 (38) to 4.2 (26) defeat, which left them with a 2-2 record ahead of the home clash with Geelong in round six.

"There's certainly areas that we need to improve on but it was a great test to come here and play a really good team," Joyce said.

"(Our tackling) was really pleasing and we certainly pride ourselves on our pressure, but we also want to build a reputation to be hard to play against.

"We're making some inroads into that and we've certainly got heaps of growth and development to go.

"We're certainly not there yet, but we're trying to get on the path to that."

Injuries to key duo Lauren Ahrens (knee) and Kalinda Howarth (shoulder) compounded the loss to Melbourne on the back of Jade Pregelj's serious knee injury a week earlier.

Both Ahrens and Howarth were hurt in tackles laid by Demons players and will be assessed over the weekend.

"We'll just have to wait on scans to see where they end up," Joyce said.

Melbourne coach Mick Stinnear was full of praise for Gold Coast.

"Their strength has been really competing well one-v-one against teams in