Eastern Suburbs returned to the playoffs for the first time since 2013 last year but couldn't match eventual premiers Sydney Uni in the latter stages of their clash on the opening weekend of the playoffs. Despite that, the Beasties were easily one of the competition's biggest improvers in 2018 and with a similar roster back on deck in 2019, Easts will like their chances of playing deeper in the Shute Shield finals series this season. Overview with Pauli Taumoepeau: “It took a while to get back into things actually. For the majority of the playing group, it had been a while since they had played so deep into the season so it took a while to get our numbers and quality up, but it’s been really positive since then,” Taumoepeau said. “Our systems are fairly similar to last year, so I feel like it’s been a pretty seamless preseason. “We also had a group of players tour the UK and Hong Kong late last year. They played some really quality games and had an absolute b