Well, wasn’t last night’s match a heart stopper?

It’s been a tough few weeks, with injury hitting us hard, but there’s a lot to be said for self-belief, and the way the team played out the match last night was wonderful – to culminate in a win was even better.

As we near the end of the 2020 season, we’ve learned a lot about ourselves.

We have a strong and dedicated group of players and staff, who just get on with it in the face of any challenge.

We have an amazing group of members who have taken us to the top of the AFL membership ranks – in both AFL and AFLW – and over the 100,000 mark for the first time in our history. In a year when the world has been turned on its head in so many ways.

And we are grateful.

So now we have qualified for finals, and the journey continues. We have a week to recover before facing North Melbourne next Thursday night, which is a longer break between matches than we’ve had in the hub so far. That will hopefully give some of our injured players a greater chance to come back, and the rest of the players some much-needed recovery time.

After that, we will return to Perth to quarantine ahead of whatever finals fixtures bring. Should we qualify for a home final, we’re very hopeful that we will be able to play at Optus Stadium, but that is subject to approvals from the Western Australian authorities. If we have to play out of Perth, at least we will have had a couple of weeks back at home to refresh and rejuvenate ahead of our finals campaign.

Irrespective of where we play our first final, we will be in contact regarding member access to tickets as soon as we have any information. As always, finals series matches are conducted by the AFL and we will be subject to the policies that they put in place around those matches.

In the meantime, I hope you and your loved ones are doing well – especially those of you facing a little longer in lockdown in Victoria. We’re thinking of you.

Go Eagles!

Kind regards,

Trevor Nisbett
Chief Executive