The home side are yet to win a game this season but got to within 16 points of undefeated Tungamah last weekend, which suggests they’re better than their 0-3 record.
Deniliquin have won two of three games to start the year, scraping home by two points in a ‘come from behind’ win over arch rival Finley on Good Friday.
The Rams lost their away trip to Katandra last year, famously giving the Kats their first win in the Murray Football League.
Deni Rams co-coach Sam Hall said last year’s loss isn’t a factor but added his charges won’t be taking any side lightly.
‘‘We lost our first game by two points and won our next two games by 14 points and two points, and I’d be surprised if there is more than a few goals either way in this one.
‘‘The competition is very even, and to be honest we don’t really know where we rank this early in the season.
‘‘Katandra kicked 13.9 against an undefeated side last week which shows they can score, and that’s more than we’ve kicked in a game this year. We can’t afford to take any side lightly and we’ve made that quite clear to the playing group.’’
The Rams will lose teenagers Jake McManus (ankle injury) and Will Shaw (return to Bendigo Pioneers), and will look to speedster Kyle Elphick and leading forward Scott Atley, who have both been in good form in the reserves, as likely replacements.
Deni’s in-form engine room of Todd Gallagher, Chris O’Connor, Ricky Gittens, Nick Howe, Ash Morris and Ryan MacDonald have been key to victory in recent weeks and should have a good battle against the likes of Trent Herbert, Pat Frappell and Luke Minogue.
The visitors will also need to watch Katandra full forward Corey Hickford who kicked four goals last week.
This week the Rams trained Thursday morning following the traditional Anzac Day dawn service, which Hall said was ‘‘something a little different’’.
‘‘We’ve been attending the dawn service for about 20 years as a club and this year we thought we’d train straight after it, rather than in the evening like we would normally do on a Thursday.
‘‘You can only hope changing the routine doesn’t have a negative effect, but I’d be surprised if it does. Anzac Day is an important day and we think it’s important our players attend the dawn service, and it was a nice reward for them to have the rest of the day off without thinking about training that evening.’’
Selection: Rams by 10 points.
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