Senior Coach Michael Voss has said that despite the excitement surrounding the Lions' first clash against new cross-town adversaries the Gold Coast Suns in a practice match tomorrow, the team's focus is well and truly on keeping the momentum going for the upcoming season.

The budding rivalry between the Lions and the Suns has been the talk of the pre-season, with the teams set to meet twice in 2011 at the Gabba in blockbuster games.

 
"The rivalry is going to mean great things for the code up here - we can look at examples like Port and Adelaide, and over in the west which have been built up over a number of years," Voss said.

"But we've got to look at this game from the season's perspective - the reality is that while it's exciting to be playing the Gold Coast tomorrow, we can't take our eye off the fact that we're playing Fremantle in round 1 and we will be doing what we need to get ready for that game."

"Would it be nice to get one over the Gold Coast? Absolutely."

"But for us, it's more about continuing the momentum and confirm that we're going in the right direction, and importantly, getting more game time into our group."

The Lions will play the Suns at Southport Sharks tomorrow following a comfortable win over the Melbourne Demons in last week's NAB Challenge.

Voss said that the players would be looking to build on their performance from last week to take into round 1.

"The win last week was good for the guys. Everyone played pretty well, it was encouraging and we came out of fairly confident," Voss said.

"The challenge for us now is to make sure that one is not a one-off and that we can replicate that sort of intensity which is going to be required in the opening games of the season."

Tickets are still available for Sunday’s first-ever rivalry match between the Brisbane Lions and Gold Coast SUNS to be played at Southport Sharks - register now so you don't miss out!

Members are reminded to register for a free ticket to guarantee entry by visiting the Ticketmaster website.