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. 

“When I started coaching at the club back in 2010, I never thought I’d end up coaching Premier Grade. But I love the club and I love being involved and this seemed like a really good opportunity to continue the good work others have been doing over the years. 

“We had a really good look back at last year and I did a lot of one-on-ones with our senior players. 

“Some questions needed to be asked as to why last year ended like it did. We put a pretty good team out on the park week in, week out last year, we weren’t really ravaged with injuries, we had a great coaching group led by Ben (Mowen) and we still fell short come finals time. 

“With hindsight, maybe we went too hard, too early last year. We had a really long, hard preseason and that was done with the right intentions, but in the end I think it cost us at the backend of the season. 

“We were probably mentally fatigued and you saw that against Brothers in the final round and then again in the semi final. 

“We’ll try a bit of a different approach this year. We still want to play good footy and we want to win, but we want to make sure everyone is really enjoying their time at the club for the entirety of the season. 

“We’ve got a saying at the moment, to ‘not fall in love with preseason’. It’s got a purpose and it’s important, but you can’t win a premiership in March. 

“We’ve got to put in the work so that we can start the year well, then we need to build throughout the season so that we can play our best rugby come finals time and everyone seems to be on the same page with that.”

2024: Semi finalists (lost to Brothers 49-26 in week one)

Ins: Massimo De Lutiis (Brumbies) Henry Wilson (colts), Shea Lalagavesi (returning from injury), Patrick Elekana (colts), Pio Nakubuwai (returning from Western Force), Jack Frampton (returning), Zac Crothers (returning). 

Outs: Rhys Van Nek (Brumbies), Jake Pappin (Japan), Richie Asiata (Sunnybank), JP Tominiko (Sunnybank), Francis Pona (Sunnybank), Aidan Leeming (retired), Tomas Milosevic (retired).

What style of rugby will we see from Easts this year? 

“It will change a little bit,” the coach said.

“This year we want to play an exciting brand of football and play with plenty of width. We’ve got some sizeable outside backs who are going to have the ability to get us over the advantage line or to run around sides. 

“We want to play a really fast game and be good at the breakdown so that we can get the ball out wide and make the most of those opportunities. 

“In saying that, we still want to be strong at set piece time. We want to create a platform from our scrum and lineout so that we can play fast and wide and attack when opportunities present themselves.

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

“I can’t give you the two teams. I just can’t pick them yet if I’m being honest,” Craig said. 

“In no particularly order, the four teams that I think will make the finals are Easts, Brothers, Wests and I’ve got a smokey in Souths. 

“I think Garrick (Morgan) has put a lot of hard work in over the last two years and I think it’ll click for him this year. 

“He’s obviously got a lot of trust in his playing group, plus he’s picked up some guys who will be really good for him. He also turned over a few coaches and seems to have a really settled coaching staff now. 

“We had a lot of trouble with them last year and will be wary when we face them again, particularly if Harry McLaughlin–Phillips is playing.”