Promising efforts by utility Matthew Moody and midfielder Sam Sheldon were the bright spots on an otherwise disappointing day for the Suncoast Lions at Broadbeach on Saturday.

The Cats maintained their Merrimac Oval hex over the Suncoast by storming to a 42-point victory, 17.14 (116)-10.14 (74).

It was the seventh consecutive win at Merrimac for the Cats over the Lions dating back to 2003, and continued the Lions’ inability to kick big scores at the ground.

Remarkably, their 74 points was their biggest score in the last five years at the Merrimac, but it was still well short of what was required to beat a Cats combination that plays hard running, accountable football under coach Shaun Hart.

The Lions showed plenty of fight in the second quarter when they rebounded from a disappointing opening term where they trailed by 22 points to get within 16 points at the main break.

Elusive rover Dayne Zorko started the game forward and kicked all four of their first quarter goals, before moving into the midfield and remaining on the ball thereafter.

He snuck free to kick two more goals in the third term as the Cats piled on 7.2-3.6 to end the game as a contest.

Suncoast generated plenty of scoring opportunities but were constantly under pressure, whereas the Cats were slick in taking the ball forward.

Lachlan Henderson played as a deep forward and showed plenty of character to rebound from an early beating by Wade Dickson – who won the Zane Taylor Medal for Queensland’s best player in the recent interstate clash with WA – to kick four goals.

Henderson gave a strong physical presence, but lacked support as Broadbeach consistently got numbers back behind the ball.

Suncoast got most of their drive from Matthew Leuenberger, who dominated the ruck and the clearances whenever he went onto the ball.

Leuenberger did some special things around the ground, and he was given a testing hit-out by impressive Broadbeach big man Mitch Andrews as the game wore on.

Daniel Dzufer continued his recent good form with another hard running display, capped by two good goals.

Bradd Dalziell caused some concerns in the Broadbeach camp with his ability to keep finding space and the football, while Matt Austin also tried hard to lift his side.

Suncoast started the game with 13 listed players and are still easing Moody and Sheldon back after longterm groin issues.

Both did some good things to show their touch is returning.

They will do plenty of conditioning work over the next week as the Lions have a bye next week to coincide with the AFL split round.

The loss was their second in a row and while they remain in third position, they find themselves just half a game ahead of fourth placed Morningside and fifth placed Zillmere on the AFLQ premiership table.

Hart shuffled his key position players around for this clash, using Ben Walters at centre-half-forward and Darin Stewart at centre-half-back.

Both were outstanding, with Walters contributing three goals after dominating at half-back in recent weeks, and Stewart in equally good touch.

It was a huge win for the Cats, who kept their faint finals hopes alive, still trailing Zillmere and Morningside by two games.

Scoreboard:

Broadbeach, 4.5, 7.7, 14.9, 17.14 (116)
Suncoast Lions, 1.1, 5.3, 8.9, 10.14 (74)
Goals, Broadbeach: D Zorko 6, B Walters 3, S Edwards 2, D Howard, M Tippett, M Andrew, D Eaton, R Woodford, T Clough 1. Lions: L Henderson 4, D Dzufer 2, M Leuenberger, K Smith, C Stiller, H Kiel 1.
Best, Broadbeach: D Zorko, W Dickson, D Skrinnis, M Spencer, D Stewart, M Andrews. Lions: M Leuenberger, M Moody, D Dzufer, M Austin, L Henderson, S Sheldon.