Eugowra's Golden Eagles toppled the previously undefeated Trundle Boomers to retain the Leon Goodwin Memorial Shield at Ian Walsh Football Field on the weekend.
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The 26-12 final score was one Eugowra captain coach Alex McMillan had to be happy with: his side's had a few tough rounds on the road but they put it all together in Round 10 and it worked.
"It was a really good result for us," he said. "It was probably our best defensive effort both around the ruck and our scramble defence was really good as well."
There were also some exciting efforts in the Eagles' attack including a couple of tries for Jourdain Girot-Serplet.
"He just keeps improving," McMillan said. "He's a pretty raw sort of young footballer who's pretty hard to handle out on our edge."
Brad McMillan and Aaron Wykamp were solid and Preston Thorpe heavily involved.
"Broadly everyone played really well and worked together really well," McMillan added.
While it's hard to get consistency at training out at Eugowra around everyone's commitments, game day numbers are strong and the Eagles are starting to come together.
"We're starting to understand what each other's doing and we've got a pretty good balance on both sides of the field and in the middle," McMillan said.
"We've got a couple of players back that were injured early on and they're starting to get a bit fitter after three or four games, we're starting to get good consistency so if we can keep everyone fit and available and get a bit more match fitness through the game day stuff we'll turn a few heads I hope."
The weekend's win was a real morale-booster, especially ahead of another tough road trip this weekend - to Peak Hill to take on the Roosters.
The Eagles have already faced Canowindra, Molong, Manildra and Trundle on their home grounds.
"We've played pretty tough games and been beaten in them but we've been in the game up til probably 10 - 15 minutes to go," McMillan said.
"We haven't been too far off, it's just a matter of trying to match it with those better sides which on the weekend it just fell into place for us and we competed through the whole game and ended up with the win over them."
He hopes his side's hitting their straps at the right end of the season, this weekend is Round 11 of Woodbridge Cup with the regular competition to wrap up on July 27.
"The goal is to get ourselves into that eight and ideally finish with home semi," McMillan said.
The Eagles and Geagles have had great support from the community, with good numbers at their home games and at the club afterwards.
This Sunday, June 30, Eagles take on Roosters at Peak Hill. League tag 12.40pm. First grade 2pm.
