AFL Central West: Eagles outclassed by Sapphire Coast in return to senior men's representative football

Along with Parkes' Mitch Stubberfield, Taylor was co-coach of the AFL Central West Eagles senior men's side which played its first representative fixture since 2018 on Saturday when taking on AFL Sapphire Coast.

But the Eagles, who who were late in pulling together a squad and had to draw on players from the second tier AFLCW competition, could not mark their return with a win.

Sapphire Coast, who had trained for at least a month in the build up, put on a clinical display at Nowra as they notched up a 15-13-103 to 5-7-37 win.

"We got smashed," Taylor freely admitted.

"It was still fun, but it would be good to get a stronger team on the field next year, like have everyone available for it.

"We only had one training session and only half the team rocked up, but what are you going to do?"

While Bathurst Giants talent Taylor played representative rules as a junior, Saturday's match was his first as a senior Eagle. The fixture also marked his coaching debut.

"I haven't actually coached before. I asked Case [Casey White, AFLCW competition and development coordinator] , if we were going to have a team, he said 'Yep, do you want to coach,?' and I said 'Yeah, sure'," Taylor said.

"I enjoyed doing it and playing with all the boys. It would be good to do it again next year and see what happens."

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The AFL Central West outfit included just one player from men's tier one defending champions the Bathurst Bushrangers in Alexander Davey, while Taylor, Bailey Brien, Bailey Waldron, Nic Broes and Zac Yandle represented the competition-leading Giants.

Second tier front-runners Parkes provided the core of the squad with six players.

Sapphire Coast took control of the match in the opening quarter, that strong opening term laying the foundation of what was to be a commanding victory.

But the Eagles were competitive in patches, with Cowra veteran Frank Bright in particular impressing Taylor.

"They came out firing which kind of put us on the back foot and their third quarter, they just ran over the top of us. We competed well in the middle quarter, but we just ran out of legs and they kicked away," he said.

"Franky Bright played a real good game. He started up at full forward and then he moved to the midfield. His experience does help and he can kick a footy that guy.

"Nic Broes had a good game and Bailey Brien was good until he went off injured in the third quarter. He just had a little tweak in his hamstring, so he should be okay."

Casey White, who managed the side, said while the result was disappointing it was a positive to see a senior men's Eagles outfit back in action.

"It was a bit of a touch up, but we could not fault the effort of our players one little bit, they had a crack and were really competitive in patches," he said.

"But Sapphire were clinical, they were well-drilled, they'd been training regularly over the last month to six weeks. That was a big difference.

"I guess the important thing is that we got the game underway, we got a team on the park and now that's a relationship between two regions for men's footy."

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