Southern Suburbs clinched an impressive 40-8 win at Mareeba in Round 3 of the David McCoy Homes Cairns Key Real Estate Cairns District Rugby League A Grade competition on Saturday night.
Suburbs, who were defeated by early premiership favourites Innisfail last weekend, hit back in style at Davies Park.
Forward Luke Saunders (two tries), Cephas Chinfat, Rikki Sutherland, Chris Riesen, Brenton Richardson, and Chris Walker all crossed, while Riesen also landed six conversions.
Suburbs head coach Greg Annison said his side, which now has two wins out of three, improved in one major key area from their last outing.
“I thought we were really lacking in the finishing department against Innisfail, so we worked on a few things during the week, and certainly came up trumps against Mareeba,” said Annison.
“The most pleasing thing for me though was keeping the Gladiators to a nil scoreline in the second half.
“We’ve been breaking our training sessions into half-attack and half-defence, so to see both working well was a major positive for us.”
Annison, who only took over as head coach at the start of the year, spent three years as assistant under former Suburbs mentor Billy Beard.
“Although we haven’t had the best off-season, my lengthy involvement with the club has meant a relatively smooth changeover,” Annison said.
“We’ve still got a core nucleus of guys, and as soon as the fresh guys get to know our systems too, I think we’ll go even better.”
Innisfail continue to impress after a hard-fought 32-12 victory at Ivanhoes on Sunday afternoon.
The Leprechauns and Knights were level pegging at the break, but the visitors surged away with the win in the second stanza.
Mick Costa (two tries), Luke Fleming, Adam Fichera, Fili Fate and player-coach Ty Williams were the six Innisfail try scorers as they maintained their 100 per cent record.
Hooker Costa was also named the LD Total Cairns Player of the Round for his fine second-half display.
Yarrabah secured their second straight win in another points-fest at Jilara Oval, eventually triumphing 42-30 over a brave Edmonton outfit.
Centre Sam Bann scored a hat-trick of tries, while Northern Pride-contracted star Menmuny Murgha grabbed a double.
Meanwhile, Brothers finally got their 2014 season up and running with a battling 30-22 win at Atherton.
New head coach Chey Bird was able to celebrate his first win in charge after two losses, with Nigel Naawi and Kalani Anah both scoring two tries apiece for the Brethren.
Tully’s home clash with reigning premiers Kangaroos was postponed due to wet weather, while Mossman-Port Douglas had a bye.
2014 David McCoy Homes Cairns Key Real Estate A Grade – ROUND 3 RESULTS
Saturday 21 March
Southern Suburbs 40 (Saunders 2, Chinfat, Sutherland, Riesen, Richardson, Walker tries; Riesen 6, Day goals) def Mareeba 8 (Pedersen, Cokanasiga tries) at Davies Park.
Brothers 30 (Naawi 2, Anah 2, Emery-Honia, Satrick tries; Sibley 3 goals) def Atherton 22 (McGilvray 2, Thackray, Burchell tries; Curcio 3 goalss) at Roosters Stadium.
Sunday 22 March
Yarrabah 42 (Bann 3, M. Murgha 2, Smith, C. Mossman, Garrett tries; C. Murgha 5 goals) def Edmonton 30 (Toby 2, Pryor 2, S. Murgha, Kyles tries; Volpe 2 goals) at Jilara Oval.
Innisfail 32 (Costa 2, Fleming, Williams, Fichera, Fate tries; Koraba 3 goals) def Ivanhoes 12 (Gibson, Bassani, Laifoo tries) at Smithfield.
Tully v Kangaroos – POSTPONED DUE TO WET WEATHER.
Mossman-Port Douglas – BYE.
