Coomera to provide yardstick for Eagles

INJURIES and suspensions have plagued the Nerang Eagles so far in 2020 but coach Lee Vernon is confident his side has turned a corner as it prepares to face Gold Coast Premier League heavyweight Coomera on Saturday night.

When the Eagles lined up for a 4-1 win over Southport last week, they fielded just three members of their starting 11 from their Round 1 Premier League clash which also happened to be against Coomera.

While a lot has changed since the last time it met Coomera, resulting in a 4-0 loss, Vernon is confident his side will pose a different task in the coming weeks after it ended a run of three successive losses against Southport.

“We needed a confidence boost and we were playing a very strong team,” he said.

“We’ve battled injuries and suspensions and we played Palm Beach and Surfers, both who are in red-hot form.

“It was a fork in the road for us last week. We could’ve gone five points behind fourth spot or we could jump into the top four and we achieved that for the first time this season.

“We’re still missing a few key players but we’ve mentally turned a corner.”

Despite soaring into the top four, Vernon said it was still too challenging to gauge where his side sat within the eight-team competition.

But Nerang’s test against Coomera, which he said could match up on any side in the league, will provide a yardstick to what is ahead.

“We’ve used so many players this season and we haven’t had close to the same team week in, week out,” he said.

“We’ve blooded a lot of players who have performed to expectation like Jordan Bishop, who played his first game for us and scored a goal and won a penalty.”