This year, former Supercats Team Manager, Trevor Price, will be writing for the Geelong News each week with an inciteful preview of the round ahead.

Read on for the review of the round 1 clash against Southern Districts and a preview of this week's match against the Bendigo Braves from this week's edition of the Geelong News.

The St Laurence Geelong Supercats will have to be right on their game on Friday night when the reigning SEABL East Conference champions take on the reigning South conference Champions the Bendigo Braves. Ironically, with the reshuffle of the conferences over the summer, both sides have switched conferences.

The Supercats started their 2008 SEABL campaign last Saturday night with an all-Australian line up in their match-up with Brisbane’s Southern District Spartans and produced a one point victory following a very exciting conclusion to the match. Braith Cox scored the winning free throw with just 6 seconds on the clock.

Missing Trinidad import player Shawn Myers, who was held up in London due to a visa delay, the Aussie contingent acquitted themselves well with Braith Cox coming off the bench for 22 points and new centre Daniel George scoring 21 while pulling in 23 rebounds. Nathan Herbert and Jamie Medved chipped in with 15 points each.

While it was a solid win, the one point margin must be a concern to Supercats head coach Mark Leader as would be the 22 turnovers committed by Geelong, which gave their opponents too many free chances. Geelong will also have to improve upon a shooting percentage of 37.4% for the match, which dropped as low as 29% in the second quarter, if they are to trouble their regional rivals.

While Myers should be in town in time for the game, Bendigo will also come with a full strength squad. Like Geelong, the Braves have had a changing of the guard over the break, with the departures of some veteran players, however, the Braves have the depth to replace these seasoned campaigners. The likes of Kevin Probert, Pat Jennings, Warren Randall and new import Dustin Bremerman give Bendigo a great back court rotation. Add to this the imposing front court of NBL player Cam Rigby, Chris Novak, Nic Campbell and youngster Taylor Bell, and the Braves will be a real handful for the Supercats come Friday night.

With Supercats veteran centre Nick Van Der Klooster enticed out of retirement for a cameo appearance to give some height to the Supercats, time will tell whether the 124 game journeyman will continue. With another big Australian player still tipped to join the Supercats squad, the big man stakes look good in the long term but the question is will Geelong have the guns for their Braves match-up on Friday night?

Medved and Herbert looked solid on Saturday. The captain Jarrod Leonard, who will play his 299th game for the club on Friday, was, as usual, directing traffic at the point guard position last weekend. Daniel George seems to have slipped into the team seamlessly and was outstanding in the centre.

Leader will be looking for improvement from Nick Owusu, who has improved remarkably over the last few seasons but appeared to have an off night on Saturday,  and Braith Cox who did nothing wrong in scoring 22 but his 8 turnovers were costly at some crucial stages.

With the addition of Myers, Geelong should have the personnel to carry off the win against Bendigo. The game at the Arena tips off at 7:30 pm