By MARK CASHMAN

A wise and very rugby savvy friend of mine, Andrew Logan, always used to say that coaches have two, maybe three “blow up deluxe” cards per season.

You know those sort of chats you sometimes have to have with a team to draw a line in the sand and hopefully bring about some sort of major behavioural change.

Well according to Eastwood’s wily scrum half Matt Gonzalez, their passionate first grade boss Ben Batger has only one of those cards left in his hand for the rest of the Shute Shield season.

“They’re very animated that’s for sure and it shows what he can see in us and where he thinks we should be in terms of how we are playing,” Gonzalez told Rugby News.

“We’ve had a couple this year and to be honest they are just what you need at different times of the season.

“We believe that we are a top four side that can push into the top two but at some point we’ve got to stop playing the young and inexperienced card as an excuse.

“We’ve just got to say that we need to make best use of the talent that we have at the club and there is plenty.”

The Woods are sitting in fourth spot on 33 points with six wins from their nine games heading into the COVID-19 break but things could have been so much better with two of those three losses easily filed in the “could, woulda, shoulda” folder.

In that folder would be the Woods’ games against Sydney Uni and Warringah games, both contests that were well within their grasp.

Gonzalez says the Woods’ season has been one of great promise but also one of extremes.

“I’m going to have to dig back into my memory because it seems so long ago now but summing up our season son far I would say that we have been very good in patches but there have also been times when we have been a long way from that,” he said.

“What we haven’t been is good for 80 minutes, there’s been flashes of brilliance and some other stuff in there as well.”

The one good think about the break in the competition is that Gonzalez will miss minimal if any time because of an ankle issue.

Gonzalez, a personal trainer when he’s not at TG Millner Field, tweaked it against Gordon and with the competition not likely to get underway until some time in August he will be ready to go when the comp is ready to go.

Coach Batger loves what ‘Gonzo’ brings to the table at each training session and every game day.

“He isn’t the biggest talker but leads by example and he sets the standards,” Batger said.

“‘Gonzo’ is the benchmark when it comes to strength, speed and fitness at the club. He is always well prepared and his recovery is spot on too.

“On the field it’s obviously his running game which is his biggest asset. He has scored some of the best individual tries I have seen and defences have to stay tight around the ruck due to him which gives our 10s more time and space .

“His defence is also underrated. He does a lot of good clean up work for us and is always plugging holes .

“He is pretty much in his prime now at 26 and I’d imagine another good year and he will be on radar for Super Rugby.”

Gonzales has huge wraps for one of the Woods’ new kids on the block in 2021, Charlie Cale.

Cale made his debut at the start of the season and has, like the rest of this Woodies group, shown flashes of brilliance and skills beyond his years.

“Charlie Cale is a fanatic player in that he is very smilier player to Michael Icely in that he’s that big strong, fast with good ball skills that you can put out on the edge and he can play out there and get some balls away,” Gonzales observed.

“You can create mismatches out there with guys like that out there and your game flows from there when you can get balls away to your wingers in space.

“Caley’s in his first year in first grade and you can see from what he has done already that he is going to be a very special player.”

IMAGE: SERGE GONZALEZ / EASTWOOD RUGBY