By MARK CASHMAN

Eastwood coach Ben Batger is loving the work of his 120kg plus winger Fabian Goodall as the Woodies ready themselves for the run to the Shute Shield playoffs.

Goodall is one of only three players who have started for the Woods in each game this year and as Batger told Rugby News they have been great and not so great at the halfway mark of the competition.

Here are Batger’s thoughts at the halfway mark:

ALL THE NUMBERS

Played 8, won 5, Lost 3

Points For: 310

Points Against: 225

Differential: 85

Ladder position: Fifth on 28 points

How would you describe your first half of the season? 

It’s been very hot and cold. We have periods where we look like best team in the competition, other times we look like a bottom four side so we need to find consistency. 

Having said that we have had 10 guys make their first grade debut and we have never fielded same team twice so we have been able to build depth, which is a positive and those new combinations will only develop with time together.

Who has been the standout player so far? 

In the backs big Fabian Goodall is having his best and most consistent year. He is one of only three players to start every game and is getting far more involved than previously which is only a good thing for the team.

In the forwards Michael Icely was brilliant in the opening four rounds and was rewarded with Super Rugby time with Melbourne Rebels . 

Charlie Cale our 21-year-old lock has been very impressive also. He tops nearly every attack statistic at club which is phenomenal for a second rower.

What’s been the difference between your best and worst performances so far this year? 

Unfortunately we have a big discrepancy between our best and worst games and most of that is around our defence . We hold out South’s with 14 men for 75 minutes, we keep Norths and Gordon to one and two tries but then conceded eight tries v Uni and seven tries v Warringah. 

It doesn’t matter about rest of your game if you are conceding seven or eight tries you’re going to lose more games than you win.

How does your squad look for the backend of the season?

We won’t be bolstered by huge amounts of Super Rugby players so we will be looking to keep everyone healthy and really start building our combinations . 

Our strength at Eastwood has always been our culture and ability to maximise our players potential which we will need to do again.

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

It’s really hard to say because it looks like the competition will really change with lots of Super Rugby players set to  return. 

You look at a team like Randwick and their whole backline will be Super Rugby players so they will be dangerous, likewise Easts who will get quite a few back and are already well settled in top six. 

But it’s hard to go past Sydney Uni, they are the most consistent team, very well coached and a great squad. So Uni v Eastwood decider.

IMAGE: SERGE GONZALEZ