As part of the AFL Community Football weekend the East Coast Eagles took on Pennant Hills in the traditional Back to Baulko day. For the second year in a row it proved to be a day that was not kind to the Eagles on the field with the Pennant Hills walking away with three wins on the day as well as taking out the main game to retain the Warren “Pops” Quintrell Shield.

In the seniors, coach Glenn Garner must be at a loss to explain why it seems that each week 1 quarter lets the side down. This week it was the third term and in that quarter Pennant Hills outscored the Eagles by six goals to none. The final margin was 33 points, Pennant Hills 6.14 (110) to the Eagles 11.11 (77).

The good thing to come out the game was the performance of two young and exciting players from the Eagles in Andrew Polkinghorne and Daniel Spiteri. Both were fantastic across all four quarters and along with Michael Johnston and Mark Maher there is some strong young talent to work with. Add to this the playing with the state U18 side in Melbourne at the moment, there is a great nucleus of young players coming through the ranks.

Also pleasing was the first up performance of Laurence Furlan. In his first game for the Eagles he showed enough to suggest that he would be a handy addition to the team as his match fitness improves.

It is still a working progress with a new coach and many new faces to the senior team and they will continue to leave no stone unturned in trying to match quality sides like Pennant Hills. The players now know what level they have to reach to be the beat the best.