Easts close on fairytale finish

JUST 12 months ago, the Eastern Suburbs Rugby Club men’s team was on its death bed because of a lack of numbers.

Now, the club is preparing for a grand final this Saturday in the Tasmanian Rugby League championships against Launceston at Rugby Park.

While the club had enough women and juniors, it was forced to withdraw from the men’s competition for the first time in 54 years with just 10 players on its books. The turnround has been led by president Kristi Leitch, vice-president Les Marshall and first-time coach Jason Parremore that has seen the club finish this year on top of the ladder with 11 wins and four losses.

“The current committee spent the past 12 months rebuilding, getting a new coach while the boys played for other clubs,” Leitch said.

“It was terrifying [to sit out a year] but we had our women’s team, we had our juniors so it was a lesson we could survive without a men’s team, but obviously we didn’t want to.

“We made the decision we had to treat it more as a business rather than just as a clubhouse for the boys to come back and have a beer and it worked.”

She said it was a vastly different feeling around the club now as it chases its first men’s premiership since 2002.

“It has been really, really nice to get the winning feeling back in the club,” she said.

The grand final should be a thriller. Eastern Suburbs and Launceston have met four times so far this season with each side winning twice.

While the premiership is obviously the main goal, Leitch said no matter what the result on Saturday the club has had a successful year. “Finishing on top of the ladder in our comeback season is just brilliant,” she said.

The final is at 1pm on Saturday at Rugby Park.