Eastwood were a penalty goal away from a second straight Shute Shield grand final in 2022, but fell just short against eventual premiers Sydney Uni in the preliminary final.

Coach Ben Batger has lost quite a few players to overseas contracts since last season, but at the same time he’s also welcomed “the best crop of colts” the club has seen in quite some time to his top squad.

Overview with Ben Batger:

“It’s always a long preseason in club rugby. We train two days a week, we’re still a bit old school in that way, but it’s been a tough slog over the last 10 or so weeks,” Batger told Rugby News.

“Everyone is really excited to get stuck into trials this weekend. It’s the fun part of the year now.

“Looking back at last year, it’s a difficult one. I thought we had a side to win the whole thing and when you look back at the semi final against Uni, it certainly could have gone the other way at times. 

“I thought we had a very good year. We were able to adapt our style of rugby, we welcomed a lot of new players into our top squad and I thought we played a lot of good rugby but at the end of the day, we wanted to win the premiership and we didn’t so that’s disappointing. 

“It’s great to see so many Eastwood players at different Super Rugby clubs around Australia. To be honest, that was a big focus of mine when I took on the coaching role in 2019. 

“The club had such a good run from 2011 to 2015 where we played in four grand finals but through that period, we actually didn’t push many of our guys into Super Rugby. I was always quite confused by that because we had a lot of really good players. 

“Sione Piukala, Michael McDougall, Jared Barry, Guy Millar. Really good guys that I thought deserved a crack and didn’t get it. 

“I’ve been fairly proactive about it and I’ve been working closely with the Super Rugby coaches to push my guys forwards as much as possible. Im really proud and I know as a club, we’re really proud to have so many of those guys representing us at the next level. 

“It’s a funny one because it obviously hurts you. We haven’t seen Timmy Anstee in a few years, Lachie Anderson and Josh Canham we don’t see much either. 

“But it does help promote the program we’re running here and it shows our current players that the pathway is there if they work hard enough. That’s what the Shute Shield is all about. 

“Last year was a bit strange when we were the side welcoming back players at the back end of the season. It was different because when I was playing, we used to be the team on the receiving end of that, so it was a nice change, I’ve got to admit that. 

“In a World Cup year, it’s hard to know if you’ll get players back. I hope our guys are pushing for selection and if not, we’ll happily have them back at Eastwood.”

2022: Preliminary finalists. Lost to Sydney Uni 10-9

Ins: Duke Nginingini (Manly), Fritz Jahnke Tavana (Southern Districts), Jimmy Hokafonu (Australian Navy), Blaise Barnes (Southern Districts), Sione Hopoate (rugby league). 

Outs: James Wayland (Doncaster – UK), Charles Granger (Hong Kong), Tom Murphy (retired), Harry Turner (injured), George Worth (Ampthill – UK), Lachie Shelly (Leicester), Sam Delores (Italy), Fabian Goodall (Toronto – MLR). 

What style of rugby will we see from Eastwood this season?

“Last year we started the year playing with a lot of ball in hand. We wanted to hold the ball and grind teams into submission,” Batger explained.

“But probably halfway through the competition we had to adjust our style based on the way everyone else was playing. We shifted and became more of a kicking side. 

“I’m hoping this year that we can play a style somewhere in the middle. We want to play to our strengths, which are our big ball carriers but also be smarter with our kicking game.”

Player(s) to watch: 

“We’ve got the best crop of young colts coming through that we’ve had in a very long time at Eastwood. There are probably five or six colts that will challenge for first grade spots this year. 

“We’ve got a young kid named JL Bacon. He’s been capped for the Australian Sevens and is a No.13 or an outside back who is a really good footballer and a hard working kid. 

“I also think Michael Icely is the best non contracted player in Australia at the moment. Alongside Ratu Tuisese who finished second in the Catchpole last year, I’ve probably got the two best uncontracted backrowers going around. 

“We’ve also got three really good fullbacks who will be battling for a starting spot. John Connolly, Blaise Barnes and Lucas Bass. They’re three good footballers and I’m hoping they will push each other this year.”

Which two teams will play in this year’s grand final and why? 

“One of them will be us. That’s what we’re aiming for anyway,” the coach said.

“Who Eastwood will be playing is tougher to predict. Sydney Uni have had a lot of changes but they’ve got such a good system that I think they’ll be up there. 

“Billy Melrose always seems to find his way into grand finals, so Gordon will be back. 

“Then Easts and Randwick are probably the two that are rising quickly. They’ve obviously had a good pipeline in to the Waratahs for a while now. They’ve got good facilities and plenty of resources. They must be close to bringing it all together and converting that into success in first grade.”