After a rollercoaster season, Eastwood shocked many in the playoffs last year when they beat minor premiers Manly, then almost knocked off Norths to book a spot in the grand final.

After blooding plenty of young talent over the past two seasons, the Woodies have welcomed back some big names from representative duties, while premiership winning coach John Manenti has also returned as head coach.

Manenti is currently the interim head coach of the Australian women’s sevens side and will likely  be given the full time role after the Commonwealth Games if common sense prevails.

But he’ll stay with Eastwood regardless and coach a side that is starting to look scarily like the team that claimed back to back premierships in 2014 and 2015.

Overview with John Manenti:

“The season has come around pretty quickly actually but we’re all looking forward to getting into it. We’ve got a fair bit of ground to cover to catch a few of the teams who are ahead of us at the moment but over the course of the season, I’m hoping we can reel them in,” Manenti told Rugby News.

“We’ve had a couple tougher years from a results point of view on the back of a really good run at the club. Obviously we lost a lot of experience after our last premiership with Batger and Perritt retiring, then we had Jai Ayoub out for most of last year, Jared Barry was injured and Tom Hill missed a lot of the season.

“We lacked a lot of experience and we probably made things hard for ourselves at times, but we still came within five good minutes of football of making the grand final. As off the money as we were for large parts of last season, we ended up getting getting pretty close in the end. If we didn’t give Norths that head start in the preliminary final, we probably would have been in the grand final.

“We were forced to push a lot of younger guys into first grade last year and I’m hoping they are all better for that experience. I think we’re in reasonable shape. We’ve had a few guys move on but that just creates opportunity for others to step up and take that spot. Our numbers are good, our depth is good, so I think we’ll go okay.

“I’m committed to Eastwood for the year regardless of what happens with the Sevens. I was always going to miss a few games this year with those commitments but we had already planned for that. I’ll just need to be good with my time management and importantly work hard to bring on the next group of coaches at the club.

“Jai Ayoub will be back this year. He’s still getting the rust out but he seems to be going okay. He’s showed glimpses of his best already and glimpses of rust and wear and tear. It’ll take him a few games to get back into the grind but I think a fit Jai creates a lot of threats for oppositions.

“Overall numbers are pretty good across the club. Recruiting is becoming tougher and tougher for us because the demographics of our region have changed dramatically in the last decade or so, we don’t have a lot of kids playing rugby around here anymore.

“We’re going okay though and we’ve had quite a few guys come back to the club this year for various reasons and that will give us some more experience, then we’ve got some young guys coming up from colts who I think will feature in first and second grade this year as well.”

2017 result: Preliminary finalists

Ins: Pat Sio (France), Mick Snowden (Melbourne Rebels), Miles MacCaffrey (Brisbane),  Jared Barry (injury), Ben James (Manly), James Martin (UK), Jack Warfield (Norths) and Josh Nohra (Japan)

Outs: Tom Hill (Hong Kong), Michael Kovacic (UK), Lachie Cannell (Gordon), Matt Hopkins (Central Coast), Joel Whitlock (Gordon), Wes Sefuiva (Manly), Makoto Tosa (Japan), Max Page (Randwick)

Key areas of improvement: 

“There is a fair bit we need to do but consistency is probably the big one. We played games last year when we were as good as any team in the comp and then we played other games when we were as bad as any side. I’d like more consistency, both in individual performance and as a group.

“We haven’t really targeted any specific areas but from history, defence has always been pretty crucial, particularly at the pointy end of the season.

“I don’t think we look to replicate exactly what we did when we won those premierships, we’ve got to change things up a bit and customise it around personnel but there are some things that never date. Things like hard work and attitude don’t change but we do look to evolve our style and structures to keep the players interested.”

Player(s) to watch: 

“Rhys Allen was travelling really well in 2016 and went really well in the NRC but then he did his ACL at the start of 2017. He is back and seems to be tracking really well,” Manenti said.

“He’s a great ball carrier and a hard worker. He’s a big human who loves carrying the ball and he’s been stepping up each week. After having a year off, he’s a little rusty but he’s jumping out of his skin to get on the field and I think he’ll just keep getting better and better.

“The battle of the halfbacks will be really good between Mick Snowden and Matt Gonzales. They’ll both likely play a reasonable amount of first grade throughout the year but if one was to get the better of the other, it would suggest he’s playing pretty well.

“The other bloke I think will have a standout year is Ed Craig at hooker. He’s done his time behind Fitzy (Damien Fitzpatrick) and Roachy (Hugh Roach) and if they keep getting picked by the Waratahs, Ed will get a good chance to show what he can do. I think he’ll be ready for Super Rugby fairly soon.”

Hopes and expectations for the year:

“I’d like to see us work hard enough to give ourselves a shot at the backend of the season. If we can keep improving and take it deep into the season and give ourselves a shot, that’s when you want to be playing footy.

“We need to keep building throughout the year and give ourselves a shot and I think we’re certainly capable of that.”

Who will Eastwood play in the grand final?

“Well we’ve got a fair bit of work to do to get to the grand final, but should that happen, I think Warringah found the formula that worked for them last year. I said at the start of last year that both them and Souths had a team that had been together for quite a few years and from our success, when we’ve had a team that has been together for a while, that’s when we’ve gone well.

“I can see those two teams going well.

“Manly will always be in the fight and I’ve been very impressed with what they’ve been doing.

“I think every team has improved though. Parra, Gordon and Easts look to have improved significantly so I’m anticipating a really close comp when on any given day if you’re off your game, you’re going to get beat.”