Eagles receive early Christmas present with signing of versatile ruckman

Pole comes to the Eagles after having spent the past season playing with Mingenew in the North Midlands Football League.

Prior to that he has spent time playing in the Upper Murray and Tallangatta & District Football Leagues.

Pole also had a six-year stint with Wodonga Bulldogs in the Ovens & Murray Football League from 2016-21 that him play 29 senior games.

His addition is a big boost for the Eagles ahead of next season and Narrandera coach Mark Carroll was excited to welcome Pole to the nest for 2024.

"I'm pretty excited about this one as boys this size don't grow on trees," Carroll said.

"He goes out with Renee Quilter who's coming back to Narrandera to play netball and Harry's going to come play with us.

"He's a six foot four, six foot five centre half forward ruckman who's played in the Ovens & Murray with Wodonga Bulldogs.

"He's a big lad and he's going to be perfect for us, he's a really good fella and a country lad."

After debuting in first grade as a teenager in the Upper Murray League with Federals, Pole then went on to show plenty of promise during his time with the Bulldogs in the Ovens & Murray competition.

Carroll was thrilled to have signed Pole for next season and believed his addition would prove beneficial for the young Eagles group in 2024.

"He's played in the strong Ovens & Murray league and he's a big lad," he said.

"They are hard to get a hold of and we'll see where we can play him.

"He's going to be vital with his leadership and experience and his size for our young group.

"We are looking forward to having him on board."

Having lost ruckman Brad Hutchison to North Albury over the off-season, Carroll believed that Pole would mostly likely spend a fair bit of time in the middle next year.

"Yeah probably I'd say," he said.

"But I'll have a sit down and a good chat with Harry and work out what our needs are and what best suits Harry and best suits us as a team.

"He could play anywhere and he could even play key back I would say, but I'm thinking probably the ruck is his go for us and resting a bit forward."

Pole is the third signing of the off-season for the Eagles joining Alex Carroll and Theo Metcalfe in committing to Narrandera for 2024.

The Eagles finished a pre-Christmas block of training in early December and Carroll was pleased with how things were building ahead of next season.

"Yeah it's going good," he said.

"We've had a bit of a spell after having about eight training runs up to the eighth.

"Joey Grinter has been taking some training runs since then and it's ticking along nicely.

"We'll get back into it on the 15^th of January and that'll come around very quickly.

"The boys are keen and ticking the legs over in readiness for that pre-season start."