After a strong regular season, Easts ran out of puff come finals time last year and lost two straight matches to the eventual premiers Brothers to end their season early. 

Simon Craig has taken the top job following the departure of Ben Mowen and is looking within to build a side capable of returning to the top of the Hospital Cup.

Overview with Simon Craig: 

“We’re happy with how things are looking ahead of round one,” Craig told Rugby News. 

"Unlike some other clubs, we don’t go around with a big shopping list but prefer to look within to try to solve problems and fortunately we’ve got the luxury of having over 1000 juniors coming through the club every season. 

"We want our juniors graduating into colts, then into grade and we’ve got a lot of home grown players doing that this year which is always exciting.