Eagles finding form as finals race heats up

THE pieces are beginning to fall into place for East Geelong, with coach Ned Auslebrook confident his side is hitting its stride as the Geelong and District Football League (GDFL) finals race heats up.

The Eagles secured consecutive wins for the first time since rounds 1 and 2 with a hard-fought victory over Inverleigh on the weekend.

The victory has lifted them to fourth on the ladder, although they remain locked with three other teams on the same number of points in a congested finals race.

Despite the crowded ladder, Auslebrook believes his side’s best football is good enough to challenge any team in the competition.

“When you look at the games in isolation, there was nothing really alarming outside of the fact that you’ve got to win enough games to finish in that top three or five, depending on what you’re hoping for at the end of the year,” he said.

“We weren’t panicking too much. We’ve probably had one game where we really let ourselves down against Bannockburn [in round 5]. But the response since then has been quite good.”

Auslebrook said replacing up to nine players from last year’s grand final side had taken time, but the new-look group was beginning to find its chemistry.

“There’s a high turnover of players since the grand final last year,” he said. “That was probably a bit of a learning curve at the start of the year, just trying to see where guys fit.

“We’ve taken a little bit to settle, but I feel like we are getting closer to settling now.

“We’ve got a lot of upside coming into the back end of the year and hopefully we can find it.”

With only one game separating second and seventh on the ladder, Auslebrook said every result carried enormous significance.

“Everyone’s got a little bit of a different run home. That’s the quirk of the GDFL draw – you don’t play everyone twice,” he said.

“Hopefully we can string a couple more wins together and get a bit of momentum going into that back six games.”

Auslebrook said a healthy list and continued improvement would be crucial if the Eagles were to mount another premiership challenge.

“We’ve had a few injuries that have cost us a little bit long term this year,” he said.

“There’s been a few things that haven’t gone our way in that space, but the guys who have come in have really stepped up. If we can manage to stay healthy, our 22 to 25 is really strong.”

He also believes there is still improvement left in the Eagles’ new-look lineup.

“We’ve got to keep building in how we’re moving the footy,” Auslebrook said.

“Our backline has a completely different look this year and we’re getting a lot of pop off half-back, which has been good, but I still think there’s improvement in that area. And also our new-look forward line is doing really well.

“We’re going to keep plugging away at how we enter the forward line and how we expose opposition backs as well.”

The Eagles will look to make it three straight wins when they host Corio this weekend.