THERE are peaks and troughs throughout football seasons, and amid the ranges of 2023, everything seems to be culminating nicely for Eastern. The fourth placed Metro region was one of just two lower-ranked wildcards to advance to finals, and had to knock off the minor premier in last week’s prelim.

Now, with three wins on the trot and seven in their last eight games, the Ranges will hope to tick one more off the list and reach the Coates Talent League pinnacle on Sunday. According to coach Lauren Morecroft, that kind of week-by-week approach has been key to her side’s success thus far.

The club’s only loss in the last two months came at the hands of Gippsland in Round 17, on the eve of the postseason. Morecroft says it allowed an opportunity for the Ranges to “look inward” and make key changes to spark their flawless run since – to the last day of the season.

“We probably needed to improve a couple of things off the back of the Gippsland game, particularly defensively but also how we attack as well,” she said. “That was a really good opportunity to look inwards and make sure we can do everything we can in the last month.

“We didn’t look too far ahead, we just planned week-by-week and continued to work really hard at the game that was in front of us. We just wanted to give the kids every chance to play another week and get drafted or improve their development next year.”

Although development and producing draftable talent is the aim of the pathway game, some of Eastern’s weekly attention understandably turns to a stacked Sandringham side – the reining premier. The two teams met all the way back in Round 1, where the Ranges pushed hard but fell 14 points short.

“It feels like so many weeks ago and it is, we’ve played 20 (rounds) of footy since then and we’ve evolved so much,” Morecroft said. “They’re a super talented team, we expect them to move the ball really well and use a lot of outside run, which they’re pretty known for.

“We take our last month into it and we hold huge belief that what we do really works, so we’ll bring that again and hopefully it’ll be a really great spectacle.

“Super fast, high pressure, physical, team-first mentality have been our things… we’ve been really strong about giving when we need to, we block, we set others up really well and we defend as a team really well… if we get it on our terms early you’ll see those things prolifically.”

Perhaps a region which flies “under the radar” as others like Sandringham churn out bulk numbers of draftees each year, Eastern looks like having two nailed on first rounders in its midst for the 2023 intake. Namely, they are livewire small forward Nick Watson and flying wingman Caleb Windsor.

While integral to the Ranges’ chances of snatching a flag, they aren’t the only ones their coach is backing to make an impact on the big stage.

“Nick’s always going to be good, he’s ready to burst too and I think we’ll hopefully see more goals out of him, but he sets so many other guys up too,” Morecroft said. “I think (Windsor) is the best winger in the country. He’s elite.

“Riley Weatherill (is) really good up front. We all know about the midfield work of Cody Anderson and Christian Moraes, but it’s probably those guys that are really doing the team-first type of things like Ry Cantwell, Cooper Trembath, Riley White, (and) Baylin Spencer.

“Tyson Sruk has had an enormous year and probably hasn’t been recognised the way he could have been. Those guys play huge roles for us that actually allow others to shine.”

There remains a chance of players coming in or out of the successful preliminary final lineup, though the Ranges have remained relatively settled in that aspect over the last month. Starting 23 players Cam Nyko and Josh Smillie are the hard luck stories – both set to miss through injury.

Otherwise, it’s a massively feel good time for the club. Both the girls and boys sides will look to go “one more step” this weekend, with the former taking on Oakleigh at 9:45am at IKON Park before the boys take to the same venue at 11:15am on Sunday.