Chris Scott has hailed Geelong's first win of the season – a nine-point thriller achieved under great duress after injuries to Jimmy Bartel, Mathew Stokes and Tom Lonergan – as the sort that a changing team can build a culture around.

The Cats, who lost Tom Hawkins before the first bounce for family reasons, trailed Gold Coast by 12 points at half-time with Bartel and Stokes already sidelined, but drew on what coach Scott called an "amazing" performance from captain Joel Selwood to kick six unanswered goals in the third quarter and hold the Suns off in the last after Lonergan was stretchered off after hitting his head in a marking contest.

"I said to him post-game, it feels like I say it all the time, but it was just amazing," Scott said of Selwood, who had an astonishing 23 contested possessions. "I don't reckon he's driven by his own performance as much as he is taking his own teammates with him, the message is more to his teammates. "It's a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity to play with this guy, let's go along for the ride with him, because he's pretty willing to lead."

Bartel limped off before quarter-time with a knee injury Scott confirmed was to the veteran's medial ligament. His coach described it as "medium-term", and he is expected to miss several weeks.

Scott said Stokes, who hurt his ankle early and was on crutches after half-time, was "unlikely" to be fit to meet North Melbourne next Sunday, while Lonergan was an "unknown", although the early signs regarding any potential concussion were good.

"It's felt in some ways that we've been up against it – not just this week, but there's been a few things beyond our control [that have] made it a little bit harder for us," Scott said. "I'm really proud of our players, the way they responded.

"Collectively we played very, very poorly, and we probably coached poorly in the first half as well. A lot of stuff was going wrong. But it was all turned around, and turned around under adversity as well – Hawkins going out, Bartel out of the game very early on, Stokes out of the game after that, Lonergan out of the game after that.

"We're a different side, we've got different players in there who haven't played much footy, but as I said to the players post-game, it's games like that that you can build cultures around. As I've said a few times during the week, I'm sick of hearing what Geelong used to be, we're what we are now. The second half was something to build on."

Gold Coast coach Rodney Eade bemoaned not taking advantage of 67 inside-50s (15 more than the Cats) and 31 scoring shots, but was pleased with the greater intensity shown by the Suns.

"Sometimes you don't play as well and you've got to take your chances," Eade said. "Today we did play very well and won a lot of the indicators.

"We just missed some shots we shouldn't have at some stages. That was the only thing really."