Everything fell in to place in a fairytale season for Eastern Suburbs in 2025.

But coach Ben Batger expects things to be a whole lot tougher in the months ahead.

Overview with Ben Batger:

“Winning the Australian Club Championships against Brothers was a really positive start to the year. 

“But realistically our goal is to go back to back in the Shute Shield and while we’ve had a good start to the year, I think we’ve got a lot of work to do and I’ve certainly found it’s been a lot harder this time around to get the group going. 

“As a whole, I think we’re just a little bit too relaxed so we’re going to need to kick things up a gear before round one. 

“Last year was close to the perfect year, winning the Shute Shield and the Club Championships. It’s hard to get better than that. 

“But we were talking just recently about what it takes to create sustained success and that’s a very different thing. 

“Everyone talks about the Penrith Panthers and the Melbourne Storm as the dominant teams in the NRL. I’m a Wests Tigers fan and I know for a fact, winning a one-off premiership isn’t enough. 

“We also won colts last year but it’s an interesting one. I don’t think any club has quite worked out the balance when it comes to pushing colts into grade. 

“There’s no doubt that you need to invest in your colts program because they’re your future, but whether they can straight away step up and make an impact in grade, that’s debatable if you look at the last few years and the averages age across the competition. 

“In saying that, we’ve got a lot of good young players pushing through and Dan England has done a great job with the colts program.”

2024: Premiers (beat Norths 36-35 in grand final)

Ins: Rob Cobb (New Zealand), Bronson Tauakipulu (Queensland), Nick Cross (Queensland), Ciaran Booth (Ireland), David Vaihu (Queensland).

Outs: Lewis Ponini (New Zealand), Vuni Fifita (retired), Fabian Goodall (retired), Alex McHenry (retired), Seb Strang (retired).

What style of rugby will we see from Eastern Suburbs? 

“Last year we were able to get away with playing a power game because we had the squad to do it. 

“I was very lucky to get all our Waratahs guys back. It’s probably the first time in 20 years that’s happened like it did, so realistically, I don’t think I’ll get that sort of luck again. 

“I think we’re going to need to be a little bit more skilful in terms of our attack and use the ball a little bit more. 

“Last year we kept things pretty simplistic. I was a new coach and we had a new group, so we broke everything right down. 

“More importantly though, we’ve got to tighten our defence. Historically, the teams with the best defence usually win the Shute Shield and I think we had the worst defence of any of the finals teams last year. 

“We were a real anomaly in that regard, so we’ve got to tighten up that part of our game.”

Player(s) to watch: 

“I’ve mentioned him a few times now but we’ve got a young centre named Otto Serfontein who looks really promising. 

“He came through Cranbrook and didn’t make any of the rep teams. Even last year, he was probably overshadowed by some other guys in a really good colts side. 

“But he’s been fantastic and will go very close to earning a first grade jersey for round one. 

“We’ve also got a big second-rower named Jack Tougher-Wells who played a lot of third grade last year. He’s decided to really switch on this season and has been excellent over summer. He’s a big, strong country kid and I’m looking forward to watching him.”

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

“Unfortunately, you don’t just make the grand final because you’re the defending premiers or because you’ve got a good side on paper,” Batger said.

“So we’ve got a lot of work to do if we want to be back there again this year, which is obviously the goal. 

“I think Sydney Uni will be the big improvers and Rats look really strong again so I’d say we’ll be playing one of those two sides if all goes to plan.”