by Paul Cook –

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THE WARM-UP:

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It’s been a season to forget down at Woollahra Oval, three wins from fifteen games not exactly the return expected after an active off-season of player activity. The bedding in of those newcomers coupled with a horrendous injury toll has left the Beasties fighting their cause from the wrong end of the ladder but performances have improved of late and they are a team that has proven to be a bit of a bogey side for Eastwood in recent years.

For the Woodies, this match and their final two of the regular season, served as opportunities to fine tweak and perfect their game ahead of the finals series. Lying only a point behind leaders Manly, they were acutely aware that three wins with a couple of bonus points could see them overtake the Marlins at the top of the ladder. But they were also wary of a Beasties side that has upset them before.

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THE BREAKDOWN:

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As it was, any notion of a boil over was somewhat dispelled within the opening quarter, Eastwood racing out to a 17-5 lead thanks to tries from Joey Afualo and John Grant and 7pts from Ben Batger’s boot.

Two yellow cards for the Beasties certainly helped the visitor’s cause, and by half-time, a one-sided contest was seemingly in the bag at 32-5. But the hosts came out with greater intent after the break, a Jack Grant try in the opening minute and a subsequent lift in physicality and ambition seeing them cause a few headaches for a Woodies side finding it hard to attain the standards of their opening 40.

However, a third yellow for the home side cruelled any genuine thoughts of an unlikely comeback, tries for Matt Gonzalez and replacement Todd Pearce duly cementing the win for the visitors, and a return to the top of the Shute Shield ladder in the process.

John Grant was on the mark for Eastwood once again – Photo: Serge Gonzalez

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THE WASH-UP:

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Despite the relative comfort of the scoreline, Eastwood head coach John Manenti wasn’t overly impressed with what he saw from his side on the day.

“I honestly felt it was one of our poorer performances of the season, we were a long way off where we’ve been,” he told Rugby News. “The first 10 minutes I think we blew two decent opportunities to score, then gave them the lead, then got it back but it wasn’t really through good play from us.

“I don’t want to be negative about Easts, they had a young side who were very willing and threw themselves into everything but we need to be better, we should have been 40-plus points up by half-time, no question.”

Despite their relative ladder positions, Manenti admitted he was mindful of Easts given their success in this fixture in recent years. And he still walked away from the game with more questions than answers, despite the victory.

“There was no question that my mentality was ‘Get out of the blocks well, put a dent in them and you’ll make the game as easy as you want to make it’,” he said. “Conversely – and with the old boys there geeing them on from the sideline (it was ‘Back to Easts’ day) – keep them interested and you’ll make it really hard work, and to be fair, the only reason they didn’t get a few more is because they didn’t execute a couple of times when they had us under the pump.

“I’m certainly a lot happier than I was when I left here last year (they conceded 50pts in defeat) but like I always say to the boys, the scoreboard is not the barometer of success, we’ve got our own standards and expectations. Our processes weren’t good today and if they were, I think we might have turned that scoreboard into something better in both the ‘for’ and ‘against’ departments.”

His skipper, Hugh Perrett, concurred with the assessment from above.

“Last year was pretty fresh in our minds still so it was a question of making sure that didn’t happen again. It was a scrappy game and I don’t think we really adjusted and played the way we wanted to play, which is clinical and structured, so it was disappointing.

“We should expect more of ourselves so we should be doubling that score after the break and looking at being in the 60’s, especially if we’re opening them up towards the end,” he continued. “I think we wanted a performance that allowed us to build into the finals, I don’t think it was that but maybe a good wake-up call instead. Credit to them, physically they showed up, but for us, it was maybe a step backwards.”

Michael Kovacic looks for support – Photo: Serge Gonzalez

The view from the other side of the fence was also one of disappointment but with a tinge of frustration at the current situation the Beasties are contending with.

“To be honest, in the last three weeks that was our most spiritless performance, we were definitely better against Manly and Randwick,” admitted Easts’ head coach Darren Coleman. “With a young group, it’s hard to be up every week and we had a hard run there where we were down against Uni, up for Manly and Randwick and back down today again I thought. We showed a bit of fight at the end but Eastwood had put the cue in the rack by then.

“Not to make excuses but I thought we’d built a bit of momentum out of the Manly and Randwick games only to lose our 7, 8, 9 and 10 for this week and that obviously hurt us. I don’t think we’ve fielded more than 12 of the preceding team once this year,” he rued. “But credit to Eastwood, they’re good. That first half is the most beaten up we’ve been this year. Uni and Manly have played fast – they play physical.”

A season that promised plenty has turned into another difficult year for 1st Grade at Woollahra Oval, but Coleman sees light at the end of the tunnel when the bigger picture is taken into account.

“Our 1st team results have been below what we expected, we are not satisfied with them nor are they acceptable and myself as head coach, take 100% responsibility for them,” he said. “From today’s performance, I’m struggling to find too many positives but in the grand scheme of things, I think the club has taken a genuine step forward this year. Our colts are all firmly in the play-offs, our 3’s and 4’s are both in the top three – it’s just 1’s and 2’s where we need to get the results up a bit.

“I genuinely think we’ve made some really good inroads with our football program and culture-wise and we’ve still got more than 10 reserves off the back of 4th Grade whereas, this time last year, we were ringing around to fill lower grade teams. We lost 400-odd 1st Grade games of experience in the off-season with retirements etc, next year we’ll be going into it with kids who had no 1st Grade games under their belt this year but who will have played 15.”

As a consequence of their below-par results this year, the focus on ensuring 2016 ticks plenty more boxes began in earnest a bit earlier than usual.

“When we mathematically couldn’t make the finals, which was after the Uni loss in round 13, if you look at our selections after that game, we really went on a youth drive,” says Coleman. “It’s a tricky thing to manage because we’re trying not to disrupt our 3’s and 4’s as they have a chance of a Premiership, so we’re pretty much working with the top 30 and bringing up some colts.”

Jared Barry has size, power and skills, as he shows with this one-handed reverse offload for Brad Curtis’ try – Photo: Serge Gonzalez

With only two games remaining, a couple of wins to end the club year could be a crucial tonic to send a group of beleaguered players out on some kind of positive note. Coleman agrees but concedes that he had been hoping for even more.

“We knew a few weeks ago that we were going into a tough run and I thought that if we could just jag one of them and then really have a crack at the last two games – Norths and Parramatta – we could finish the season on a high,” he said. “Randwick was our best chance last week to be honest, we got within five with a few minutes to go and they kicked a penalty goal to win it.

“It’s hard to be up every week with a young side, especially in this competition, and it just depends who you play on the weeks you’re down. Unfortunately, we seem to time most of our poor performances with teams we think we should beat. We’ll do a little bit of recruitment next year, we’ll target a couple of key positions we think we can improve but it’s more about retention and hoping that those guys that got their chance this year can step up.”

Eastwood meanwhile, are entering familiar territory. Having featured in three of the last four Grand Finals, they know what it takes from here on in to get the job done. While some of the on-field cavalry has changed since that memorable 2011 victory over Sydney University, the coaching team remain intact – and suitably  demanding.

“I’ve obviously got fairly high expectations of what we’re capable of and what we need to do if we want to go deep into this competition,” says John Manenti. “I think we were probably heading in that right direction a while back but in the last couple of weeks, we’ve let ourselves down a bit.

“That being said, I know you can’t be perfect every week and we’ve had a really hard run where we played all the top teams in an eight week period so understandably, we were going to have a few highs and lows.”

While Eastwood were winning this one, Manly were going down in the peninsular derby to arch-rivals Warringah, meaning the Woodies overtake them in top spot and sit in pole position to reclaim the Minor Premiership they relinquished to the Marlins in 2014.

But maybe that particular accolade is not all it’s cracked up to be.

“We’ve been Minor Premier before and not won the comp,” explains Manenti. “It’s nice for the club obviously but what I really want to win is the Club Championship, that would be something that was a great testament to the club and how hard we’ve all worked.

“You might finish Minor Premiers and meet a topline Uni in the first week of the finals so I don’t know where the bonus is in that – maybe you should be able to pick your opposition instead!”

EASTWOOD 46 (Joey Afualo, John Grant, Blake Sutton, Brad Curtis, Matt Gonzalez, Todd Pearce tries; Ben Batger 5 cons, 2 pens) defeated EASTERN SUBURBS 15 (Jack Grant, Joshua Toole, Jacob Celermajer tries)