The thunderous roar of the crowd and the deep rumbling of hustled footy boots will return to George Brown Memorial Oval this weekend.
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Sunday, the mighty Eden Tigers will play host to the Moruya Sharks across four big games, including the return of an Eden-owned under 18s playing roster.
Club president Michael Gandon said the early encounter with the reigning premiers will be a great starting point for the Tigers.
“Our team looks well balanced for this weekend and they trained the house down on Wednesday night,” he said.
“Sunday’s matches will provided a great day of league, but it will be very testing against the Sharks.
“We’ll be able to gauge where we stack up early on in the piece.”
The Tigers were resplendent in the recent Nines tournament, finishing runner-up to Batemans Bay after a phenomenal showing under the watchful vigil of new coach Jake Whitehead.
Whitehead, 26, who hailed from Hay, said he was a bit daunted at first to take on the role, but things were starting to click as the season shapes to launch.
“A lot of the blokes are older than me and here I am telling them what to do, but they’ve responded well,” Whitehead said. “It’s all been pretty smooth from the start.”
The club has lost a few players, but picked up some valuable inclusions as well, with the new captain-coach bringing his younger brothers and a few mates to join the ranks.
However, the Tigers are also welcome a core group of returning players across the grades and some fresh faces to add impact in the line-up.
“There’s been a good turnout over pre-season training, a few times more than what we had during the middle of last season,” he said.
“There’s a strong vibe around with everyone training hard, so with the amount of players we’ll aim to go far.
“Finals is a minimum.”
Unfortunately, the back-rower injured his shoulder during the Nines hitout, but Gandon said Whitehead was aiming for a round two return and had been on the training paddock.
For the top grade the club will look to John Aldridge in the halves, who had arguably the best kicking game of any player at the Nines draw.
Paired up with speedy outside back Joel Grewar, the pair are a dangerous combination, especially with the addition of some young new talent to the Eden line.
The club will also feature in the ladies league-tag and the return of a home-grown under 18s side.
“Then in reserves we’ll have our portability club of Bermagui-Cobargo playing and they look like a strong squad too,” Gandon said.
Under 18s will kick off play in the opening round of the 2017 season with the Eden Tigers to tackle the Moruya Sharks from 10.30am.
The headline first grade draw will run from 2.30pm on Sunday.