Eagles Get On The Board With First Win Of 2020

It was a long time coming, but the East Coast Premier Division Men finally got to sing their beloved song this past Saturday, after a thumping win 74 point over Camden at Kanebridge Oval.

In the opening month of 2020’s shortened season, the Eagles have suffered some significant setbacks, but showed promise throughout, and in Round 5, it all came together.

The message, which was driven all week at training by the playing group, demanded success on the weekend. Anything less then victory over Camden was unacceptable. A promise was made, but they still had to walk the walk. It was evident during the first quarter, that our Eagles were hell bent on keeping their promise.

Launching into the contest with a fired up intensity, East Coast brought the heat against the Cats, looking to really set the tone with a 6 goal to 1 opening term.

Camden were shell-shocked, and likely doubting if they could return serve in the second quarter.

It was crucial that East Coast kept their foot on the gas in the second term, as it has been well documented how this has been our Achilles heel in recent weeks. Whilst this quarter wasn’t as dominant as the first, we were able to stay ahead of the curve, 8 goals ahead at half-time.

Complacency started to rear its ugly head, albeit slightly, in the third quarter, as both sides went goal for goal in an even period. Nonetheless, the Eagles maintained a strong lead going into the final quarter.

In the last quarter, we picked back up where we left off at half-time, driving home 4 goals to nil, including skipper Jamie Vlatko amassing his 8^th goal, in a showing that made him the star of the day. This capped off a tremendous performance for East Coast, who deserved their first win of 2020.

On his first win as Coach of the Eagles, Hayden Rickard had this to say:

“We saw some improvement in our transition to defence this week. That allowed us to generate pressure for long periods of the game.

However, we are still a long way off our potential as a group. Going on form, we have the toughest assignment in Sydney AFL next week. It’s vital we get numbers on the track this week to get that continuous improvement.

Jamie Vlatko was huge for us this week, productive, but crucially had support from our smalls. In addition, Aaron Drinkwater, Eddie Cole & Jordan Etto gave great decision making throughout the game.

In terms of improvement, a series of poor options invited the Cats into the contest in the third quarter. The quality of this competition demands that we must stick to method. When we go away from our blueprint, we really tend to handover pressure on each other.

We have experienced some growing pains as a group. We will take the result and seek to go to another level next week”.

Rickard did not mince his words in reference to our matchup next week. East Coast will travel to the AstroTurf of Gore Hill Oval, to face ladder leaders North Shore Bombers, it what promises to be an intriguing battle.

Nevertheless, it was a great win in Round 5 for our Eagles, and one to look to build on going forward.

Will Cashmore

FINAL SCORE