Andrew Piva
Saturday, April 17, 2010
© The Cairns Post

FNQ Bulls coach Peter Tokesi hopes lessons have been learnt and that his side does not judge the Queensland Academy of Sport players by their age ahead of their Queensland State League clash in Brisbane tomorrow.

Despite repeated warnings by Tokesi, the Bulls underestimated the talent levels of the young QAS team last year and lost their first clash 3-1.

With memories of the defeat still smarting his senior players, Tokesi believes past mistakes will not be repeated.

"We should be better prepared for them," Tokesi said.

"I’m not saying they won’t score against us but we should be ready for their speed.

"QAS has a similar squad to last year’s and what happened is that a lot of them went off to play for the Brisbane Roar and Gold Coast in the national under-19 competition and have come back again.

"They’ll be that little bit more experienced because of that."

The Bulls are sitting third on the ladder with two wins from three games and are imbued with a deserved self-confidence after beating the NQ Razorbacks 3-1 last week.

Tokesi said his players were beginning to realise what they were capable of.

"That was a good result against the Razorbacks when you see they are one of the competition favourites," he said.

"We’re quietly confident of doing well (against the QAS).

"The one thing is that some players in our side are still adjusting to the pace of the league.

"We have a few new players from last year and they are still coming to terms with the fact the extra pace lasts the whole game."

FNQ Bulls squad: Angelo Serafin (gk), Cameron Morrison, Joe Rusch, Victor Madrid, Dennis Allen, David Ruiz, George Slefendorfas, George Koroma, Alex Plowman, Callum Wood, Nathan Bird. Subs: Bronson Koppen, Robbie Pendenza, Larry Maggio, Joshua DeNittis.

http://www.cairns.com.au/article/2010/04/17/106041_local-sport-news.html