Hosting Eden in the annual fixture, the Sea Eagles were a little too polished in the midfield for the visitors, running out a 21-14-140 to 8-4-52 result on Saturday. 

Hosted at Tathra’s Lawrence Park, players formed a silent vigil in remembrance of the ANZACs playing the Last Post and holding a moment of silence. 

Eden were a little too aggressive on the ball early, gifting Tathra the opening goal as the visitors gave away a 50. 

Tathra then continued the early streak with some dominant play out of the midfield where Rick Spink was solid out of the ruck to gain plenty of possession from the centre clearances. 

Eden’s first six-pointer came through Jarrod Moore, who took a cracking contested mark against the Tathra defence and made no mistake on the follow-up kick. 

Moore led the scoring for the Whalers with three majors to his name. 

From the Tathra contingent, incoming captain Dean Gartside was the man with the plan, booting seven goals despite a shoulder injury in the opening quarter. 

Gartside was also awarded the annual Anzac Medal for the best on ground performance in the season-opening fixture. 

By three-quarter team Tathra’s lead was near unassailable for the Whalers, but the Eden club have continually proved themselves as a team that won’t quit. 

Scott Munday continued to serve as one of Eden’s most resilient players with some strong defensive runs and providing good support to the attack. 

Nathan Sebire, Luke Grewar and Dylan Wallace were also handy for the Whalers, who fired back three goals in the third quarter, but couldn’t muster the pace to contain Tathra in the final period. 

Louis Coulton was among the leading goal scorers for the Tathra outfit, but had an uncharacteristic match with plenty of aggression. 

Just the senior sides took the field on the weekend with ladies, development grade and juniors to launch this weekend. 

The Whalers will head up the road to meet the Pambula Panthers at the Pambula Sporting Complex on Saturday.

 The ladies outfit will head into their maiden round for 2018 as the club looks to lock in a third straight women’s flag. 

The women’s side take the field at 1.10pm with the first bounce in seniors at 2.30pm. 

There will also be reserves between Pambula and Broulee at 11.50am.