Streak of wins boosts Surfers
BRAD Moore’s belief that Surfers Paradise will take further strides forward with their QAFL performances has been confirmed after finishing the preseason campaign unbeaten.
The Demons beat the Western Magpies 9.6 (60) to 7.8 (50) on Saturday to ensure they will go into the 2019 season in a fortnight full of confidence.
“I’ve definitely seen another shift forward,” Demons coach Moore said. “The biggest asset for us we have at the moment is our depth. Our reserves won by nearly 100 points.
“That has been the biggest part, hence we have tried a fair few players run through the senior and reserve sides.
“We are feeling good with where the list is at the moment. Getting them all to gel on the field will be the biggest challenge for us.”
Moore has experimented with players and structures in the preseason and after breaking out to a four-goal lead against the Magpies, was disappointed with the finish.
“We started really well but we probably finished poorly, we didn’t run out the game as well as we would have liked.”
Labrador beat Sandgate 15.7 (97) to 7.3 (45) on Saturday as they begin finalising their own preparations for Round 1 on April 6.
Tigers coach Liam Burke said he remained confident the club would be able to match it with the best.
“There is still a bit of work to do with synergy, knowing where guys run to, how they like to kick and just the little intricacies,” Burke said.
“It will be about our application over four quarters that we look at now.”
Sandgate were one of the only sides Labrador beat in 2018 and they look to have their measure again early in 2019.
“We knew we would have been able to outrun them so we were working on a couple of things we wanted to do which was clean up some of our ball movement and be a bit better going inside 50m,” Burke said.
“We were able to do that but when you are trying to make your ball movement a bit more free flowing it also cost us a few turnovers as well.”