CAIRNS City Cobras gave their quest to become an AFL Cairns top-four contender a measure of validity in round one with a 25-point win over South Cairns on Saturday.

Gary Ablett still had flowing locks the last time a Cobras side beat a Cutters outfit but a strong off-season recruitment drive has invigorated the Holloways Beach club.

Pictures: AFL Cairns 2010

In front of their home fans, Cobras negotiated the wet and sloppy conditions to win 8.19 (67) to 6.6 (42).

New recruits starred for Cobras at both ends of the ground.

Tasmanian arrivals Jake Briggs and Patrick Bass kicked two goals each to make impressive league debuts, while former Norths player Tim Seymour was a strong presence in Cobras’ backline.

Cobras co-coach Aaron Nesbitt said the first-up win was a confidence booster for his club.

"It was good to get that win up early. We’ve been working hard at training and hopefully we can improve from there," he said.

"I was a little bit disappointed in a few areas. We need to stick to our structures more and stop going off and doing our own things.

"We also need to work on our discipline. We gave away a few 50m penalties, which cost us a few goals."

It was a tough initiation into the Cutters senior coaching ranks for Robbie Douglas, who has taken over the top grade side from Steve Daniel.

Minus a host of stars from last season, including reigning Crathern medallist Andrew Browning, Luke Cannard and Marcus McMillan, the 2008-09 grand finalists do not appear as formidable on paper this year.

Cutters’ cause was not helped on Saturday by a string of injuries suffered during the game, with Rodney Kim (broken jaw) and Daniel Whitling (broken ribs) the most serious.

With wounded players populating his bench by halftime, Douglas said his team did well to stay in the contest.

"It was a character-building performance. All the boys stood tall," he said. "It would have been easy for them to throw the towel in but they didn’t."

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