The bottom-of-the-table side had fought hard to wrestle back the momentum in the last quarter of the see-sawing game at Manuka Oval before backchatting gifted a double goal to the Gold Coast Suns.

Backchatting was again the cause of a double 50-metre penalty and a certain goal to the opposition. And coach Ben Waite said he was "absolutely" annoyed.

"That was some of our senior players that gave those poor free kicks away," he said. "The three fifties we gave away were backchat and those particular guys know who they are and they owe their teammates one."

As has been the case with many games this year, the Demons started well and led at quarter-time with a five goals to zero term, but the Suns' seven goal second term ensured the game was back on even level at half-time.

Canberra were clearly undersized against their bigger bodied opponents and found it hard to win contested ball, but once the smaller players found room their offensive pace looked threatening at stages.

"We moved the ball quite well but I thought we were a little bit too conservative today," Waite said. "We have got a certain attacking style that we know works for us, and I just didn't think we did that enough today."

"I thought the guys competed well, considering they were quite a tall side."

"We had 188-centimetre, 190-centimetre guys trying to compete against guys that are 200-centimetre plus."

Suns coach Stephen Daniel addressed the need to start well given the unusual game time of 10.30am.

"We were really disappointed with how we started the game to be five goals down, and then we talked about a few things we had to improve on, and our second quarter was terrific," he said.

"They've had some really good starts this year and unfortunately they've given them up, so we knew in the back of our minds even though they started well we thought we might be able to get them."

In the end, the visitors' superior contested ball winning ability was significant.

"For the last three quarters we were really strong over the ball and we were really happy with that because in the first quarter we weren't," Daniel said. "We're really happy with the effort."

Jordan Harper was again prolific for the Demons with two goals and 34 possessions, while Tom Faul impressed on debut.

AT A GLANCE

Canberra Demons: 5.2-32 6.3-39 11.4-70 15.7-97

Gold Coast Suns: 0.2-2 7.3-45 9.9-63 16.13-109

CANBERRA DEMONS

Goal Kickers: J. Harper 2, N. Fothergill 2, A. Bruce 2, M. Vardanega, S. Martyn, I. Taylor, K. Mahon, J. Baker, C. Bance, T. Highmore, L. Harper, R. Stevens

Best Players: N. Fothergill, B. Halse, J. Baker, A. Bruce, T. Faul, S. Martyn

GOLD COAST SUNS

Goal Kickers: C. Cameron 3, Z. Saad 3, C. Marsden 2, D. Stanley 2, S. Tape 2, M. Willis, K. Brooksby, J. Garlett, J. Daniels

Best Players: J. Garlett, S. Tape, M. Willis, D. Currie, K. Brooksby