The Saturday pre-season carnival started with a meeting in the car park to decide who would ride to the Sunshine coast in the Red Jag, Rocket (Rod Buchner) won or lost.

Game 1

Morningside Supercats V Sun Coast

Our first game was against Sun Coast who has been the strongest team in the MAFQ. We were a bit short of players and the teams decided to play 16 a side with no wings. Sun Coast got off to a flyer in the open field with 5 goals in the first 20min to only 2 behinds for the Supercats. Many of the Supercats had not played together, however late in this term the backline stood firm as Perea aided by Scott Macqueen and Jason Dummett pushed the ball out of defence. In a stunning return Larry King Koi raked up the kicks and marks running riot through ½ back and the mid-field.

In the 2nd half the mid-field of Steve Toohey, Macca (Neil McIntosh) and Steve Burchill started getting the ball out of the centre, also Rod the Rocket got several great taps from Macca to find the big Red Dragon in the forward line. The Dragon scored two goals for the half as we matched Sun Coast in the last half.

Full time scores Sun Coast 8. 6 54 to Supercats 2 3 15.

Goals Mick Liveri 2.

Best: Larry King Koi, James Pera, Steve Toohey, Rod the Rocket Buchner, Scott Macqueen, Rick Dickinson.

Game 2

Morningside Supercats V Redlands

After a break of 2 ½ hours a few legs were sore, especially Steve Burchill and Macca who played an extra game for Promona. Pup arrived to help with some mid-field run and several Promona players returned the favour and filled in for our injuries.

This was a tight game with neither team getting much of a break. The first half include two great goals one from Dean Broten and the other from first game player Rob Mr St George who followed the ball towards the goal, aided by a great contest by Rick Dickenson. Dave Walker was a ball magnet taking several good defensive marks. All players contributed to the better start and at half time the Supercats lead by 1 point. In the second half with the wind, the Supercats slowed the game and tried to hold possession. However Redlands applied lots of pressure to drive the ball into attack. The backline worked hard with Dean Wallington driving the ball out of defence. Redland’s wasted opportunities kicking 4 points in a row at one stage. In the last seconds of the game a free kick to Steve Burchill in front. The game was on the line with this last kick as the Supercats trailed by 1 point. Steve kicked truly and the Supercats won by 5 points.

Final scores Morningside Supercats 5. 5 34 to Redlands 4.5 29

Not Sure on all the goals: We know S Burchill 1, Rod St George 1 and Dean Broten 1, claims for other two?Best: All players had a great dig.

Injuries: Tav, G Doueal badly corked leg 3 to 4 weeks, Dean Broten Leg hadn't healed right, out 6-8 weeks with 3 small tears in my quad

Coaches comments:

How did we all pull up after Saturday?

Doullie and Tav were the main casualties but nothing too serious.

Suncoast won both the Supers and Masters but no real surprise there.

Great hit out for us and once we get back the players who couldn't make it we should be in for a good season.

Always good to blow out the cobwebs and with a bit more emphasis on fitness between now and first match we should be right.

Macca and Dean rotate really well in the middle and with that little bit more height it opens up more options for us.

Rod and Rob had great debuts but all in all everybody put their hand up and had a crack.

Well done everybody.

See you all Wednesday.