Hard work starts now for the Eagles
In spectacular fashion, the Eagles overcame injury and a late sin bin to beat The Vikings at The Nest by a single point, and now narrow their focus to the Owls.
In the opening minutes of the game, captain Josh Gillard was taken from the field with a shoulder injury, but it didn’t prove too much of a detriment with Alex Small fearlessly taking the reigns, and Jamie Kotz coming on after a full game in 2nd Grade.
Kotz was a standout with and without the ball and was the eventual Brooks Marchant player of the day with a phenomenal 160-minute effort.
Whilst talking on The Squawk about the previous weekend where the Eagles clean sweeped the Vikings in all premier divisions, Ben McGee mentioned it’s been more than 20 years since any club has achieved this feat in the regular season.
“These small achievements for the club are making everyone’s efforts worthwhile. The work that Marco, Troy, the board and all of our amazing volunteers do are all the big contributors to the position of the club right now.”
In 2018, the Eagles and Owls played each other three times. The first was at ANU, where the Eagles lost by a point despite two yellow cards and one red card. The next was the final round of the regular season, where the Eagles required a bonus point win to make the finals, and that they did. Finally, the minor semi-final at Viking Park went the way of the Eagles in a hard fought match to end the Owls’ season.
During the week, head coach Marco Caputo mentioned how difficult the first 6 rounds of the season were always going to be.
“With four games over seven weeks, and Tuggeranong twice we knew that was a major hurdle this season.” Caputo says.
“We’ve come out the other side, and now the hard work begins. We’ve put ourselves in a position where we get to choose our fate,
“If we get the next five games right we can set our season up and control our own destiny. We will get the reward for our black squad training model as the season progresses, we’re prepared for whatever comes our way week in week out,
“We need to come out firing this weekend against the Owls, both clubs look forward to this fixture and last season’s games were fuelled with passion, and that’s what we’re going to bring.”
In this week’s episode of the Squawk, the likes of Jake Helgesen, Glenn Carey, Rich Holder and Tim Davis share their favourite memory of the Eagles Vs. Owls rivalry, better known as the Battle of the Big Birds. Hear the full episode here.
See you at the footy this weekend!
