2026 Preview: Eagles eager to swoop on Premiership rivals

There’s an unmistakable buzz around Wainoni Park as Eastern Eagles gear up for what is shaping as a breakout CRL Whitehead Plumbing & Gas Men’s Premiership campaign.

After missing the playoffs by a point in heartbreaking fashion during an admirable 2024 season, the Eagles dipped to the foot of the Massetti Cup ladder last year with only two wins – but all signs are pointing to an upswing in 2026.

“We’re pretty excited about it, the boys are looking forward to it,” incoming Eagles coach Jarrod Race says.

“It’s been a long pre-season – now we can finally kick into it.”

The Eagles have been busy on the recruitment front.

The squad will be bolstered by Hornby premiership-winning duo Devaun Thompson and Jordan Kamana, and Linwood’s Jochden Filimoehala, who was named Trillo Metals Men’s Canterbury Bulls’ Rookie of the Year in 2025.

Meanwhile, long-serving Eastern star Klayton Waikato returns to the club after a stint in Australia, playing for Wagga Wagga outfit South City Bulls in the Group 9 competition.

“The guys that we’ve that have come over bring some pretty good experience,” Race enthuses.

“So we’re learning from them and taking what they’ve brought from other clubs into what we’re doing. That’s good for some of our guys that probably haven’t had some of that higher experience.

“They’ve all clicked really well and bonded together.

“And obviously we’ve got a lot of the old boys still, they’re a massive part of what we’re doing over here and the younger boys can start learning from them.”

Race linked with the Eagles three years ago and served as an assistant coach to Archie Jacobs – now in charge at Hornby – before being prompted to go for the head coach role at Eastern.

Given his aim was to be coaching a team in the Premiership within 10 years, Race is well ahead of schedule. With valuable skipper Uale Peneli heading to Australia in January, importantly the rookie mentor has a solid group of Eagles stalwarts around him.

“We’ve picked up Jaejae Smith as assistant coach, so just having his experience over the last couple of years being involved in both those [Premier Reserves] grand finals and just his experience in general, it’s been a massive help as a coach.

“But we rely on guys like Taniela Leka and Cyrus Timo-Latu, these boys have been around a long time,  I mean there’s so many now and we’ve been lucky with the growth of the club.

“We’ve had massive numbers coming to training and everyone’s getting to benefit from it, from the experience of having guys that have been playing for 10-plus years.

“Having three teams helps with depth for one thing, but we’re pretty tight around the community and the whole community gets behind us as a club. Just having numbers has helped with competition for spots.”

The Eagles will field teams in the CRL Whitehead Plumbing & Gas Men’s Premiership, CRL Premier Reserves and CRL Division One.

The club’s Premier Reserves side is shooting for three straight Canterbury Cup successes after outlasting Halswell in the 2023-24 grand finals – which Race hopes will translate into tangible improvement in Canterbury Rugby League’s top-tier competition.

An Eastern team has not played for the Pat Smith Trophy on CRL Grand Final Day since 1981.

“It’s definitely driven some standards, the guys know how much harder they have to work and obviously grand finals don’t come easy.

“Right from when we started in November, we just couldn’t afford to be complacent – we’ve worked really hard. So hopefully it pays off.

“We’re just setting our own standards and living up to those, trying not to put too much pressure of grand finals and stuff like that on ourselves – just knowing we had to be better, not letting ourselves down and being accountable for our actions.

“So that’s going to be more our driving force rather than looking at that grand final success.”

The Eagles kick off their CRL Whitehead Plumbing & Gas Men’s Premiership campaign on Saturday with the headline match of Round 1 – as the away team in Papanui Tigers’ long-awaited return to the top grade.

The teams met in a trial last month…but a big increase in intensity is anticipated with Massetti Cup points on the line.

“I guess for us is just it’s a focus on our game,” Race contends.

“We’ve set better standards so we’ve got to make sure that we play up to that – it doesn’t matter who we play.

“We had the pre-season game against [the Tigers] but it doesn’t really count for much now, we know that they’ll be much better this time around so we’ve got to lift our standards and be better when we show up in Round 1.”

Photo credits: David Toombs and As.I Media