Sport

Rams out to win against Echuca

By Rowan Frazer

Aug 22, 2025

Lachie Cooke in pursuit of the ball on Saturday against Rumbalara.

The Deni Rams will be looking to complete the final round of the Murray League home and away season triumphantly away against Echuca United tomorrow.

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While the Rams seniors and reserves footballers are out of finals contention, due to the teams above them pulling away with wins, the Rams thirds and fourths will be playing to bring momentum into finals.

The thirds will be aiming to have fourth position on the ladder secured.

The fourths, who are in second place, could match ladder-leaders Cobram on 17 wins, but will likely finish second due to Cobram’s for and against of 1775 to 103.

In the netball, it is a must win game for the Rams’ A-grade side against Echuca United.

Deniliquin sit in seventh on the ladder, trying to fill one of the positions in the Murray League’s top-six finals format.

They play the eighth placed Eagles tomorrow.

In the A-grade competition, Moama sit in fifth and Numurkah in sixth, with both teams playing each other this week and both above the Rams by less than a win on the ladder.

As long as the Moama and Numurkah game doesn’t result in a draw, and if the Rams win, they will be into the finals.

If the Moama and Numurkah game is a draw, positions will come down to percentage.

The other Rams team keen to secure their finals position tomorrow are the under-17s netballers. They sit in third position and play the top-of-the-ladder Echuca United side.

While the Rams’ senior footballers missed out on a finals position, they put in another competitive match last weekend at home against Rumbalara.

Ultimately, the Deni side, didn’t do enough damage on the scoreboard, going down by 24 points.

Reflecting on the match, Rams head coach Gary Parsons said Rumba got out to an early lead, which was hard to chase down.

“We had the same amount of scoring shots as them, but the quality of our shots was not as good.

“It was pretty windy on Saturday, and we were also shooting from a long way out. Our forward entries were pretty shallow, which hurt us.

“We just didn’t put any scoreboard pressure on them at all.”

Tomorrow the eighth placed Rams will be against a similarly positioned side in Echuca United, who are 10th on the ladder.

“They’re around the same sort of skill level as us, I’d say. Although they’ll have a bit of confidence after a win against Nathalia last weekend,’ Parsons said.

“They’re usually pretty tough to beat at their ground, but we’re hoping to finish strongly.”

With their season wrapping up this weekend, Parsons reflected on the overall experience of the season.

“We’re pretty proud of the fact we’ve had 14 players come up from thirds this year.

“A lot of things can happen over time, guys move away, but overall hopefully the club can reap the rewards of what we’ve done this year in a couple of seasons.

“We’ve probably been lacking goals. Charlie Hillier has probably been our main option leading the way for us in the forward line; outside that we haven’t had a lot of options to goal.

“In saying that blokes like Darcy Cullenward, Kai Hillier, Monte Barnes and Miller Fitzpatrick, I could go on, but these guys who played a lot of seconds last year have probably been some of our most consistent players this year.”

Round 17 match reports:

Match reports for the seniors and reserves footballers were not submitted in time for inclusion in Tuesday’s Pastoral Times, and have been provided below.

Seniors