The Mulwala Lions loom as the next challenge for the Deniliquin Rams, who are away tomorrow in round eight of the Murray League.
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All local football and netball supporting eyes will be on the Murray League round, with a Picola League bye this weekend.
Recent form from both Deni and Mulwala should bode well for some important and exciting clashes.
Mulwala are in the top two on the ladder in each of the top three grades of senior netball, but the Rams competed strongly against Moama last week. All sides are quite evenly matched in the junior netball.
It will be competitive on the football field too, with two top six clashes in the junior football.
Mulwala has only one more win than the Rams in both grades of senior football.
Last round, Mulwala won against Echuca United by 70 points, while the Rams led Moama for long periods of last week’s match but went down by 11 points.
Senior assistant coach Chris Mitsch said the team put in a great effort, but couldn’t hold on to their lead after facing a multiple goal breeze at the southern end of the oval.
“It was a really good game and a tight contest.
“There was probably a three to four goal breeze to the rice mill end.
“We got that head start with the breeze, and then they pegged it back a bit.
“We thought if we could get a buffer of two to three goals by three quarter time, we might be able to hold on. But we were only ahead by four points, and that wasn’t enough.
“In the last quarter, bringing it up the ground we had a few errors. They stretched the lead to 11, and we couldn’t quite catch them from there.
“It was always going to be a challenge as we were undermanned, with 10 out injured or otherwise at the moment.
“But the effort was fantastic, especially for a young side, and that’s all we can ask for.”
Travelling to Mulwala is a difficult assignment for any Murray League team, but Mitsch said the Rams are prepared to give a good account of themselves.
“They’re a pretty seasoned team with a fair few bigger bodies.
“The trip over to play Mul, at Mul, is probably one of the more challenging trips for us.
“Although, we’ve played pretty well over there the last few years, so the ground doesn’t hold any demons for us.
“We’ve just got a fair few out due to various things - injury, unavailability and a couple at boarding school out.
“Probably eight of them that are out are in our best 18, but that gives an opportunity to some of the other guys. We’re confident, we’ll go over there and give it a red-hot crack.”
The team is expected to be much the same as the side playing Moama, except for needing a replacement for forward Brock Redden. Redden has been a reliable player, kicking 12 goals so far this season.
The final line up was confirmed at training yesterday, after the Pastoral Times went to print.
“Young Charlie McCallum was good in his senior sub debut on the weekend,” Mitsch said before training.
“He is in a group of three or four who should be right to step into senior footy next year, which is great for us. We have been working on that, and on the field he didn’t look out of place.
“We also have been working on our forward structure. Our mids and backs have been solid, it is just how we get it forward.
“Brock is out with a hamstring, and we’ll miss him this weekend. He started on the bench on last weekend, but we got him in.
“He clunked a couple of marks, and it looked like he was on for a big one, but he pinged his hammy and to be honest, that didn’t help us missing that extra rotation.
“Fitzy (senior coach John Fitzpatrick) is talking about bringing in Brett MacDonald, who has been going well in the reserves and would bring some experience to the side.
“Kai Hillier injured his ankle against Tonny and was still a bit proppy.
“Noah Bradley is another who had a bit of a knee concern but trained well on Tuesday, which was good.”
This is the last game before the club’s bye next weekend, which offers valuable rest time.
“We’re looking forward to the break, actually. It’ll be a chance to work on a few things, train well and have the week off.
“We’ll also look towards the game following the bye, which is Finley at Finley for the June long weekend.
“Hopefully, we’ll have a few of our boys back from boarding school, but I reckon Finley will be pretty keen to get one back after we got them over here on Good Friday.
“I expect that will be a cracking clash, so we’ll freshen up for that also.”