Taken at face value, Eastern Suburbs’ 2017 Intrust Super Shute Shield season appeared to be another tick in the box marked ‘failure’. With victory in just a third of their matches, their 9th placed ladder finish indicated little by way of marked progress from the preceding fallow seasons at Woollahra Oval. But take a look beyond the cold, hard facts of the win, lose or draw, and you’ll see a young team that lost six of their games by 9pts or less, and who had to train and play their entire season away from home, after their new all-weather pitch had to be re-laid.