The Eagles are looking to build a family atmosphere, establish a recruitment team for netballers and have high hopes for the ground as well. 

Newly appointed president Mark Smithwick  has already had meetings with the council for the proposed plan for the club. He said the meetings had gone well. 

“We have had three meetings with the council, and we have gone forward in each meeting,” he said. 

“We are going to have a sub-committee which is going to be a fundraiser, a sub-committee as a social one and another one for recruiting, trying to get the netball girls and senior reserves. 

“Not only that, we want to involve the netball girls in this recruitment drive – we want to at least get two or three of them on the same page.

“The other one is sponsorship and leadership, and that’s from the girls and boys side of it so they are joined together.

"We are trying to get juniors up and it looks like we may have under-12s and the way it’s looking it’s looking really good.” 

Not only does he want to do make the football and netball club as one whole club, but he has huge visions for not just next year but for season 2020. 

“This year we want to do three practice matches and we want to do one as a twilight one,” he said. 

“We have to raise money as we are getting new netball courts, we are getting a new electronic scoreboard coming in, the coaching boxes are going to be split 30 metres apart, the goal posts are going to go up higher. 

“The council is hoping to maybe get one of the Melbourne clubs up here to play one night – that’s what we are working on not next year but in 2020.” 

As for the season ahead his plan is simple – to make the Eagles more enjoyable club for families. 

“The main goal is to try and get the females and the boys to negotiate more between them, trying to make them more friendly,” he said. 

“We are going to have a few family days and just create more atmosphere that way.

“You go back into the 70s and early 80s that’s what they used to do, we are going to try and swing around and try and go back that way, but at the end of the day you have to look at the long term effect.”

Newly appointed senior coach George Cooper said the club’s aim was to build a good culture on the field. 

“I suppose going into season 2019, we’ve got a new committee and with Mark at the helm it’s really going to build the culture of the footy club, which is what retains players,” he said.

“With the playing group that we had last year, we’ve maintained the majority of those and we would like to build on our win loss ratio and set ourselves the goal of six wins for next season.

“You look at your Tatyoon’s, Horsham Demons in the Wimmera league, they all have good family culture and that’s the reason why they retain so many players year after year, so that’s where we are trying to build on as a football club at the moment. 

“Just get the players in the door and hopefully they see enough and want to stick around.”