Beattie undeterred despite Eagles being bitten by Tigers

While it might not look pretty if taken at face value, Beattie was enthused by the areas in which his side is showing significant development.

“If you look at it at half-time, we were only 24 or 25 points down, so we were actually really good for two quarters,” he said.

“We limited their pretty potent supply to goal and created enough opportunities but just sort of squandered (those) a little bit inside our forward 50.

“But apart from that, for two-, two-and-a-half quarters, we were really good.

“We’re not mature enough to play four quarters yet against a really good side, but like I did mention to our guys, there are some serious green shoots that we are seeing there in terms of improvement, we’ve just got to see them all at once.”

Having stressed since the pre-season that wins and losses won’t necessarily constitute success for his side, Beattie is confident that his young and inexperienced group is ticking internal measures.

That development is evident week on week, said Beattie, with his side able to implement improvements against Cobram in areas they were beaten just seven days ago against Tongala.

“The (internal measures of success) revolve a lot around preparation and recovery, which is education that we’re working pretty hard on making sure our guys know what it takes to be ready to play,” he said.

“There’s also about 13 guys that have played 15 games or less of senior footy, so in terms of having a young or inexperienced side, we’ve given guys opportunities who might be in their early 20s who haven’t played a lot of senior footy as well.

“In terms of our success, obviously we’ve had a couple of bad losses, but there's ways that we've been beaten in those bad losses.

“We’re just trying to eliminate those ways (of) getting beaten, which we did yesterday, we didn’t get beaten the same way that we did against Tonny.

“If you look at those sorts of improvements and say ‘well look, we’re capable of doing it,’ we will put it together at some stage soon.”

Among the young group that has shown great development is Ryan Stobaus, with the defender building on a strong campaign last year to earn his third consecutive nomination in the best players at the weekend.

Beattie was glowing in his assessment of the young gun, who he said deserves a crack at a higher level of football.

“Ryan's a star, he's a 30-year-old, 200-game player in the way he carries himself,” he said.

“He doesn't get flustered, he’s very reliable, he's a really good teammate. All things equal, (if) an opportunity presents itself, we'd like to see Ryan get another crack at the Pioneers squad, which we've been in touch with the coaches about that.

“He's too good to be playing here if his development continues the way it is, but he's got some footy to play yet that’s for sure.”

The Eagles will this week prepare to face Rumbalara in what shapes as a solid test for the group, with Beattie not dwelling too much on the result against Cobram.

"It’s making sure that when they get back on Tuesday, they've done their recovery, they're ready to train, and we have a week on the track (where) it looks like they've got no idea whether we won or lost the week prior,” he said.

“We do everything we need to do for that before they get back on Tuesday in terms of (the players’) understanding what went well and what didn't.

“With Rumba, we'll have a look at their side tomorrow and their results, and just have a look around what we can do to win that game.

“It's obviously an opportunity to be in the game and they're not going as well as other sides either, but they're not awful either, so opportunity presents but we'll assess that as the week goes.”