Eastwood v Sydney Uni: Six Shute Shield Grand Finals in 15 years
Eastwood backrower Hugh Perrett won a Shute Shield premiership in his first season in 2003 and another in his last a full 13 years later, with two more thrown in the middle for good measure.
An Eastwood junior, Perrett watched the Woodies win their maiden premiership in 1999 and spent his teenage years watching the likes of Bill Young, Jeff Reid, Matt Miller, Travis Hall and Tim Donnelly dominate at TG Milner.
By 2003, a young Perrett had cracked first grade and helped the Woodies to a 29-14 victory over Randwick in the first of seven Shute Shield grand finals he would play in.
“I was a pretty young 20-year old and at that stage, I honestly just thought we’d win it every year,” Perrett said.
“But I found out very quickly just how hard the Shute Shield was to win. How much you had to put in and how much had to go right.”
After losing grand finals in 2004 and 2005, Perrett was forced to wait until 2011 to play in the final match of the season again, this