Welcome back to the Sanchez and Santi ni show, where the masters of illusion are promising more Reds magic in 2011.

Sanchez Will Genia and Quade Santi ni Cooper stamped the Queensland Reds - Super Rugby's former laughing stocks - as the hottest ticket in town last year with a stunning turnaround through an exhilarating attacking game.

With the exciting Wallabies halves calling the shots, the Reds produced the razzle-dazzle to go from battlers to the brink of the Super 14 finals.

In the end, Queensland fell two points short of the semis, finishing fifth due to costly losses against the Brumbies and Hurricanes in the final three rounds.

But Genia, the PNG-born halfback who prefers his middle name to his first, said that failure ensured Ewen McKenzie's team was as hungry as ever to continue their rise in the expanded competition.

"That's the important thing, you think about what we really achieved and we won games and played well but we didn't achieve anything like wining the comp and that's one of the things that's driving the group," he told AAP.

Among the highlights for the Reds were upset wins over three of the four 2010 finalists - the Bulls, Stormers and Crusaders - all of which came at Suncorp Stadium, where crowds of 30,000 rushed to be entertained.

Genia, who has handed the captaincy back to fit-again lock James Horwill, knows it will much tougher to rock better-prepared leading teams this year.

"We did, to an extent, ambush sides," the 23-year-old admitted.

"Teams will be fully aware of what we're capable of and what we can do so it will definitely make it harder so we are going to have to reinvent ourselves to a certain extent."

That's where the magicians' new tricks will come into play.

"We're not going to change the game style but we'll keep things up our sleeves for certain teams just to surprise them and ambush them a little bit so they don't all know everything that's coming and we can catch them off guard," Genia said.

Cooper showed his bag of tricks was as deep as they come in a breakthrough season last year which earned him the Wallabies No.10 jersey and attracted offers from the NRL.

His decision to re-sign for just one year ensures there will be more talk about his future in 2011, but the mercurial five-eighth has shown he plays better with the added attention.

On top of an expanded six-team finals format, enhancing the Reds' hopes of a first finals finish in 10 years is the fact their young squad is one year older, with many now bolstered by Wallabies experience.

McKenzie boasts a starting pack which could have seven Test players, compared to two last year, plus 2007 World Cup props Guy Shepherdson and Greg Holmes on the bench.

Convincing trial wins over the Crusaders and Brumbies have shown competition for positions in a red-hot backline is as hot as ever while boom Australian US20 flanker Liam Gill is well in the mix to replace All Black Daniel Braid at No.7.

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