Round 1 of the big season tips off this Saturday night where our Senior Men and Senior Women take on the Eltham Wildcats here at Diamond Valley.

Senior Women Tip off @ 6pm and Senior Men tip off @ 8pm here at Diamond Valley Sports and Fitness Centre.

Warren Estcourt our new Senior Championship Men's coach gives his view on the upcoming game:

This week we kick off the 2013 Big V Championship Men’s season.

The Eagles have seen a lot of change from last year’s group and a number of players including, Brad Bridgewater, Christopher Arkell, Matthew Bongetti, Chris Blicavs, Greg Page, Wayne Michaelson, Harun Kansak, and Callum Repper electing to ply their trade elsewhere.

 This year’s team sees the return of Adam Moore, Luke Valentine, Brett Fennell and Sam Reynolds while we welcome back former Eagles in Sammy Gazzo and Matt Fennell, as well as the promotion of Matty Reynolds and Mitch Lee from the Youth League programme. We also welcome Nathan Truman and Neal Haining to the club, who have followed new Head Coach Warren Estcourt from the Sherbrooke Suns.

Your Eagles start the season off with a local derby against the Eltham Wildcats. Eltham have also seen a big change in their roster with the majority of their team moving on to other clubs. They welcome back Scotty Cuffe from last year’s team and also Eltham veteran Johnny Lister, who has been playing in the United Kingdom as well as import Dave Buchberger, who teamed up with Lister for the London Leopards. The Wildcats will also roll out new Coach Angelo Calcagno otherwise known as the “Big Italian” who will lead the team into the 2013 season. With a successful international playing career behind him, which includes time playing in the EuroLeague, Eltham is confident that Calcagno is well positioned to lead the senior program in 2013 and beyond.

The Eagles are coming off a successful pre-season campaign and Coach Warren Estcourt will be looking for that hard work to pay off today against the Wildcats.

As always, defensive transition, rebounding and offensive execution will be of paramount importance and the Eagles will look to build a winning tradition starting today.

Thanks for coming out to support your Eagles and we look forward to giving you the best possible effort that we can every single week.

Entry is only $6 and kids under 6 are free.

Get down and support the local derby!! Go Eagles!