New Easts’ head coach Ben Mowen is confident his side will summon their early season energy and effort for this weekend’s clash against Brothers at Crosby Park.

“I assess the season in two segments, post the rain interruption for two weeks and how we were tracking before that happened,” Mowen told Rugby News.

“We were reasonably positive prior to the weather break.

“The immediate focus for us is how do we get that energy right for this weekend.”

Easts are under no illusions about the quality of the Brothers’ side they will face on Saturday.

Mowen believes the Brethren are the in-form team of the Hospital Cup, not that it will phase the Tigers.

“They’re very confident in the way they’re playing and they should be as probably the form team of the competition.”

“You don’t go to Uni and beat Uni or Wests at Wests unless your game is really humming.”

Preventing Brothers from accessing their potent attacking weapons will be a decisive factor in the match, Mowen said.

“Expecting a team that plays with a lot of tempo and that’s very efficient in the A zone in terms of coming away with points from A zone entries.”

“We’ve got to be disciplined with what access we give them into our half.”

“If we do let them in we’ve got to be really clued on in terms of how they access their game through maul and quick ruck ball.”

Having only played four games in six weeks due to weather disruption, the Tigers are hoping to claw back the momentum they had gathered prior to the interval.

Before the interruption, Easts beat Sunnybank comprehensively and only just fell short against powerful Wests and GPS’ outfits.

“At this stage we’re just building our game, hence why I wasn’t too disheartened with the results against GPS and Wests,” Mowen said.

“We didn’t get the results against Wests or GPS, but it was probably three or four game management decisions away from coming away with the points in those games.

“The effort was good, the work of the ball was good and the defensive decisions were really sound across those first three games.”

Other than last week’s big loss to UQ, which Mowen labelled an anomaly week, the new head coach said he was pleased with how his new side had been gelling across the opening weeks of the season.

“More than half of our group is new to the club or grade footy, so there’s some adaption going on there.”

“It’s a very new coaching group in terms of myself as the new head coach and Paul Warwick new attack coach. That takes a little bit of time to get your systems in place and get everyone understanding what the expectations are.”

“As a whole, we’re looking to build our game and progress each week. The stage to be looking at tables and things like that is not for now.”

Two Easts’ newcomers have impressed Mowen with their early season impact.

“Zac Shepherd, who’s new to the club, has been a really good lineout leader for us and his work around the park has been right where we want it. He’s carried a lot of responsibility in at lock.”

“Jake Pappin at ten. He’s… had a lot of traffic come his way in the first four games and shown he’s a really good defender. He’s so brave in that space and then he hops out of it and directs the team around the park really well.”

The Tiger’s are celebrating their 75^th anniversary in season 2022.

Mowen knows his premier grade side is cognisant of how important the year is for the club and they are looking to do it justice.

“We’ve been celebrating that right from the pre-season where we’ve renamed all our moves around ex-players that played in that 1997 grand final win which has now been twenty-five years.”

“That’s sticking in the background in terms of how we’d love to do something special and celebrate it with a trophy. For now, it’s about getting our processes right and hopefully we’re there at the end.”