Roar face Sydney FC tomorrow and Murdocca insists his team are aiming to win the competition and will not be treating the competition as simply practice for the season proper.

Sydney and Queensland have enjoyed a healthy rivalry with the two clubs meeting three times in four weeks at the end of last season. Last time they met, the Roar inflicted a 2-0 defeat on Sydney, ending the glamour club's season at the semi-final stage.

Murdocca said: "Sydney's always been our biggest rival, you can't deny that and at the end of the day when you play against a Hyundai A-League side everyone always puts in 100 percent.

"You don't want to go in half-hearted and lose the game that's just not how it is - everyone goes to win the game and tomorrow will be no different."

"We want to win this Pre-season Cup, we haven't really won anything whether it's the Pre-season Cup or the minor premiership or the major premiership, so it'll be nice to finally win something. We'll be taking it very seriously tomorrow."

Frank Farina has brought in several young players, Tim Smits, David Dodd, Thomas Oar, Isaka Cernak and Luke de Vere, as well as Dutchman Sergio Van Dijk and Scot Charlie Miller and Murdocca has high expectations for the new signings, particularly the two international players.

Murdocca said: "Sergio Van Dijk's going very well, he's basically our main striker this year so hopefully he stays fit and plays most of the games. He's done very well in the pre-season and impressed everyone at the club.

"Smitty's (Tim Smits) going very well, we picked him up from the local league and he's been going very well and of course Charlie Miller came as well, I think he's finally signed now.

“He’s (Miller) going to be playing behind the strikers and he is another one that we have a lot of respect for. He has played at Rangers and that just proves he is a class player and hopefully he can do very well for us this year.”

When the season proper starts, Murdocca hopes Queensland can improve on its first finals campaign last season when it was beaten by the Newcastle Jets in extra time of the preliminary final.

Murdocca said: "We came very close last year, it's still rich in our minds how heartbreaking it was to lose right at the end.

"At the end of the day we just wanna go that one step further and ultimately make it and win it if we can."

Murdocca’s role in the team will be slightly different to previous years, with Farina indicating that he will play a bit wider than usual, with the Roar set to implement a diamond formation in the midfield.