Eagles eye run at full strength

East Geelong coach Tom Cordner-Maas is hopeful his side can avoid a mid-season injury bug as the Eagles hit full fitness.

The Eagles have used 31 players in their senior side so far this season, with minor injuries meaning the premiership contenders have not gone unchanged in any game.

Cordner-Maas said he hoped the group could find some consistency with their fitness in the coming weeks.

“It was good to get the bye when we did. Six weeks of footy seems like a lot more when it’s your first six weeks of the season,” he said. “We’re starting to get guys back. Jayden Fanning should come back next week from a concussion, he’s clearing all the protocols and makes such a huge difference in our structure.

“We should get Sam Lowe back in a couple of weeks from his broken foot as well. He’s the only other one that’s been a decent injury, so hopefully we can get him back up and running.

“We don’t have too much movement in the team really. We’re pretty good now, we’re not far off full fitness.”

The Eagles have six wins from their opening seven games and sit second on the ladder behind Thomson, but face a difficult run of games in the next month.

East Geelong meet thirdplaced Bell Post Hill, ladder leaders Thomson and last year’s grand finalists Inverleigh in the next three rounds, before facing Corio and Geelong West the following weeks.

“It’s going to be a pretty difficult couple of months for us, particularly the next four weeks or so we play some pretty good sides,” Cordner-Maas said. “I think over the next few weeks we’ll start to see the ladder shaping out a bit more than it is now as everyone plays each other once … all these teams are really competitive so, if you have a down week, you’re going to be beaten.”