Gold Coast have fuelled their self-belief and put Richmond's shaky AFL season on the brink with a hard-fought upset win at Marvel Stadium.

The Suns broke clear in the third term and then held off a Tigers' fightback in the last for their third win of the season, 11.6 (72) to 6.12 (48).

Despite the match being played under the roof, Richmond only had four goals until eight minutes into the last quarter.

It leaves the Tigers with just one win and a draw from seven games.

"If I cast my mind a long, long time ago when I played, away games and away wins are really good," Suns coach Stuart Dew said.

By contrast, Tigers coach Damien Hardwick spoke of his frustration.

"There are bits of play where we look great and we should get out - and then we don't score. All of a sudden, it will come down the other end and they do," Hardwick said.

"It's those 12-point swings. When things are going well for your side, you're actually up and about and OK.

"It becomes demoralising and it can zap our team's energy. It felt like that today and it feels like that now for me - I feel as flat as a tack.

"I'm the eternal optimist. I still feel like our best is good enough - but the fact of the matter is we're a long way off that."

Inevitably, there were more questions about Richmond's abysmal Marvel Stadium record.

Since the Tigers' win over GWS in round nine two years ago, when Hardwick spoke of hating playing at Docklands, Richmond have a draw and five losses there.

"I don't think the ground's a factor, I think it's more on us. I have no issue with it," Hardwick said after Sunday.

He remains adamant the Tigers can rebound, but admitted at the moment it was a matter of "Richmond hurting Richmond" with the way they are playing.

"Taking the record out of it, we've been in situations before where we've had holes, where we just can't seem to get out of it," he said.

"Sometimes you look at it and you think 'Geez, I don't know where our next win's coming from', but all of a sudden things can change very, very quickly.

"We're never out of games - but the problem is we're not in them enough."

It is Gold Coast's third-straight win over Richmond.

The Tigers kicked the first two goals of the last term to reduce the margin to 15 points.

Richmond ruckman Ivan Soldo then took a mark within range of goal halfway through the quarter.

He elected to pass and it went astray, with Ben Ainsworth goaling at the other end two minutes later.

"He's trying to do the right thing. He knew straight away," Hardwick said of Soldo.

Suns key forward Ben King shone with four goals and Nick Holman was also outstanding in attack, while Noah Anderson had 32 disposals.

Tim Taranto impressed in the midfield for the Tigers.

After a scrappy and dour first half, Gold Coast busted the game open in the third with six goals to two.