By DAVID NAGEL
A GRUELLING pre-season under second-year coach Scott Eastwood would appear to be paying off for ROC with an impressive 14-goal win in its season opener against Doveton at Starling Road on Saturday.
Eastwood, who represented Victoria at the Men’s National Championships as a player in 2000, took over the reins last year when the club was caught short with the departure of its previous coach.
The former Bonbeach, Hampton Park and Kooweerup footballer has had a full pre-season to work with his side this time around and has already noticed improvement.
“Last year, we had a very interrupted season, with the coaches leaving at an early stage and me taking over, but this year we’ve had plenty of time to prepare,” he said.
“We’ve worked well as a group and I can see a lot of advancements already. To go out and perform like we did, against last year’s premiers is a promising sign, but there’s a long way to go and we’ve still got plenty of things we can improve on.”
Eastwood said there was clear focus heading into the pre-season grind.
“The number one thing was to get the fitness base up because we struggled last year to run out games,” he said.
“The A Grade games in this league can be intense, so that was a main area of focus. Then four weeks out, we started working on systems and those types of things.”
ROC’s fitness and structure really stood out against the Doves, with defenders Laura Quinn (GK), Mel Overdyk (GD) and Sophie Tracey (WD) combining beautifully with Amy Tivendale (C) through the midcourt.
Former Berwick goaler Laura Hargreaves (GS) looked dangerous under the ring, fed with precision passing from Gemma Stacey (GA) and Kylie Bradshaw (WA). ROC led by three goals at quarter time and stretched that to 13 with a dominant 16 to 6 second quarter.
Doveton defenders Cara Humbert (GK) and Aggie Seeto (GD) used their athleticism to keep the electronic scoreboard in reasonable shape for their side.
In other games, Kerry Twyford didn’t get the result she was after in her return to Fox Road, her Pakenham side going down 44-36 to Narre Warren, while Berwick bounced back from its round one loss to Beaconsfield with a 36-33 victory over Cranbourne.
Hampton Park, minus its star goaler Emma Ryde, suffered its first loss of the season, losing to the still undefeated Beaconsfield, 40-32.
There are only two games this Anzac weekend, with Cranbourne hosting Tooradin at Casey Fields and Pakenham and ROC taking to the court at Toomuc Reserve.
