‘We’ll be the hunted, how good’s that?’ Erina lines up title Rugby League Central Coast defence

After breaking a 33-year drought last season, the Erina Eagles have revealed their approach as they look to go back to back in 2025.

Erina will enter the season as defending premiers for the first time in 33 years. Picture: Sue Graham

For the first time in 33 years the Erina Eagles will enter the season as defending premiers.

And while some teams, including most notably the Sydney Roosters side of 2019, make a conscious effort to eliminate any talk of going back to back, the Eagles are embracing the challenge.

“We strive to be the best, we’ve been ripping in at training and we want to go back to back,” said hooker Zade Besley.

“We just want to get that feeling back, so anything we can do to make it happen, we’ll be doing it, putting in the hard yards. We’ve been doing things at training that we know others aren’t doing just to try and win the comp. The hunger hasn’t gone anywhere.”

Indeed, instead of playing down their hopes of winning consecutive premierships, Erina coach Dane Allen is encouraging his young squad to enjoy their success and embrace the challenge of being defending premiers.

Erina defeated Toukley 12-6 in the grand final. Picture: Sue Graham

“Our approach is just to enjoy what we’ve done so far and continue to build on it. I’m not gonna sit there and say, ‘You can’t talk about last year.’

“These are the sorts of things that drive our excitement and I think at this time of year it’s really hard to be keen about training,” he said.

“But knowing that we’re at a standard where everyone is chasing us is exciting for our blokes and I’m letting them live in that moment. That’s been a big push from me to them: just keep enjoying it, you’re going to be the hunted this year, how good’s that going to be?

“It has been a little bit like that the last few years admittedly but I’m not trying to squash that back-to-back stuff out of them. I think it’s a good driver for us and we’ll continue to use it as ammo.”

As a club that prioritises its own internal pathways, it has been another fairly smooth off-season for the Eagles.

The club has lost retiring skipper Joel Frazer, fullback Jack Frasca to an ACL injury and young guns Ben Taylor and Devonte Vaotu’ua to NRL development deals.

However in return they have picked up Terrigal captain-coach Dylan McKeown, The Entrance forward Brodie Green and returning Eagles Ben Steven and Lincoln Tubridy, who are back with at club after a year out of the game.

Zade Besley (centre) in action for the Eagles in last year’s decider. Picture: Sue Graham

“Fraze, our captain courageous, is a big loss, but we picked up Dyl McKeown from Terrigal who’s a bit of a ‘Fraze’ replacement. He’s fit and really tough,” said Erina five-eighth Toby Elliott, who added that the squad has plenty of confidence that it can match its heroics of last year.

“The fact that our core is young and we’re all coming back helps.”

The Eagles, as defending premiers, will be on everyone’s hit list in 2025. And while Erina kicks off the season against its rivals Toukley in a grand final rematch, some in the team have cast their eyes towards another team that it expects could be a big challenger this season.

“I think the local derby will be back this year,” said Besley. “Kincumber have signed a lot of good players. They were really tough in the forwards last year, but now they’ve got Matty Moylan and David Fifita out there, so that’ll be a big one.”