and Mal Meninga Cup competitions, but remain as the Eastern Suburbs Tigers for their local and junior teams. Head Coach Craig Hodges announced on 24 September 2020 that he would resign and move to New Zealand Warriors, the club was thrilled with his appointment and wished him the best of luck. Almost the same time, Terry Matterson expressed an interest in becoming Head Coach of the Tigers, and was approved the following Tuesday. But almost immediately upon the appointment of Kevin Walters to be Coach of Queensland Maroons to become Head Coach of Brisbane Broncos on 30 September, Terry was approached to become assistant Coach and on 15 October 2020, it was announced that Kevin Walters has put together his Holy Trinity with the Broncos coach securing John Cartwright and Terry Matterson as his assistants in a bid to break Brisbane's 15-year premiership drought next season. Fortunately during this transition, a former Tigers development coach, and previous Head Coach of Souths Logan Magpies, Jon Buchanan came to the club and was announced as the Head Coach on 13 October just before the previous announcement of Terry. The club is now moving into Preseason 2021 and has announced the Trial dates for Mal Meninga Cup (U18s) and due to COVID-19 cancellations, the Hasting Deering Colts will be an Under 21s competition, a distinction from the usual Under 20s of the previous years. NRL affiliation The Easts Tigers were the last team in the Queensland Cup to follow the trend of becoming affiliated with a team from the National Rugby League. After relationships with Cronulla-Sutherland Sharks and the Penrith Panthers, at the end of the 2006 NRL season the New South Wales club South Sydney Rabbitohs announced an alliance with the Easts Tigers as a feeder club for the National Rugby League (NRL) side. At the end of the 2007 season it was announced that the Rabbitohs and the Easts Tigers would no longer be affiliated due to various conflicting issues, the Easts Tigers instead looked closer to home and struck an affiliate deal with the Brisbane Broncos. At the end of the 2010 NRL season the Victorian club Melbourne Storm announced an alliance with the Easts Tigers as a feeder club for their NRL side. The partnership with the Easts Tigers allowed the Melbourne Storm to tap into the Easts Tigers' recruitment and development systems in Queensland, as well as providing