The Lions beat South Cairns Cutters and rallied to fall one point shy of Port Douglas to qualify for the decider against Saints, who beat Centrals Trinity and North Cairns in the later games.
All teams were missing key personnel and rotated their senior and reserves lists heavily, but under new coach John Tootell the Lions showed enough poise and direction to offer hope this season.
It was pleasing viewing for Tootell, particularly in game one against Souths where he was assistant coach last season.
That game was not short of fire, with plenty of cross-pollination in terms of players having served time at both clubs.
The Lions took the spoils though, 5.4 (34) to 2.4 (16) while a 4.2 (26) to 3.9 (27) defeat from Port was enough to see them proceed on percentage.
About 12 more players are due to arrive for Lions and the coach has told them to put their skates so they can suit up this Saturday.
“Hopefully I can get them here before Saturday (to play the final),” he laughed.
The Lions’ era began in 2011 when the Cairns City Cobras merged with junior club Redlynch Lions and they have struggled ever since to gain a foothold at the senior level.
But they have shown potential in the previous two seasons and established a solid support base in the process.
Tootell said the loss of Michael Paul, Scott Hughes and Tyler Stack this season was not cause for disruption, with the retention of Adam Gross and Cameron Adam good news and the addition of several Darwin-based recruits set to bolster the side.
“It’s very hard to keep players for more than a few seasons, but … hopefully once the others arrive we can get the structure right,” Tootell said earlier in the week.
“The key is to make sure we understand our game plan and are competitive.”
Saints were afforded a kind initiation to their campaign against a below-strength North Cairns side, before a tough tussle with Centrals Trinity Beach went their way and secured a finals berth.
North Cairns had started well against Centrals in their first clash but were happy to trot out their entire list and concede comfortably to Saints.
Defending champions Port looked sharp again and, proving the more things change the more they stay the same, it was not long before Tom Clough rose for a spectacular mark in their second game of the day.
Featuring plenty of new faces, including skipper and ruckman Sam Conroy from the Ballarat Football League, Centrals showed they would be a stronger force than the one that finished bottom of the pile in 2014.
Article Courtesy of Murray Wenzel, Cairns Post 23rd March 2015
Last Modified on 25/03/2015 10:29