Tallon Smith, Jamie Parsons
The Barellan Rams secured two minor premierships on Saturday as they put their mark on their best season to date.
For the first-placed Rams men’s side, it is their best finish since the start of the Proten Cup, matching the feats of Goolgowi (2021) in winning women’s and men’s minor premierships.
On the field, Deniliquin needed some fill-ins to make a side for their last game, with the season taking a toll on their players.
Barellan took a while to get going, but shifted gears quickly once they got their first try.
After a 24-0 halftime lead, the game was over before fulltime when the Rams reached 60, with captain-coach Noah Forbutt scoring three tries and nine goals, and 50-gamer Reece Wilson kicking the last conversion.
Speaking to Battlers For Bush Footy ahead of the finals series, Forbutt said the Rams are where they envisioned themselves after some tough conversations at the start of the year.
“We’re sitting where we want to be,” he said.
“After the knockout, and how we went down to Narrandera, we said this isn’t how our season’s going to turn out.
“We’ve been pushing, we’ve had decent numbers at training, and just the morale around the club, the girls, they’re high up at the moment as well, everyone’s just enjoying it and it’s good.”
As for who he is most concerned about facing going into the back end of the year, Forbutt said that all of the other three sides in the finals pose a threat in the evenly matched competition.
“All of us four are definitely capable of taking it out this year,” he said.
“We haven’t beaten Ivanhoe in the regular season, so it’d be good to get one over them on the weekend and set our spot in the Grand Final.”
The rise of the Rams has been the story of the season, with the club rebounding from a wooden spoon two seasons ago to a first-placed finish this season.
Forbutt said that the key to the success has been keeping the tight-knit squad together, whilst adding key strike weapons such as former Hillston skipper and Waratahs reserves premiership coach Luke Farmer.
“[When] I started coaching three years ago, in my first year, we didn’t go the greatest,” Forbutt said.
“We finished on the bottom of the ladder and then it only got better from there.
“All the boys have stuck around, we’ve added a couple to the squad and we’ve just been going higher and higher and, this year, I think it’s gonna be our year.”
With the club’s women’s team also flying high at the top of the ladder, the Barellan faithful are beginning to dream of a rare double premiership, a feat only achieved by Narrandera in 2022.
With both sides in strong form, Forbutt said that the banter between the squads has been a source of great entertainment and light motivation throughout the season.
“They’ve been the benchmark since they came into the comp,” he said.
“They always give it to us at training and say who the better team is, so no, it’s good to be up there on top as well and give a bit of stick back to them.
“Hopefully we can both go on with it.”
Finally, as for whether being a player-coach makes things more difficult, Forbutt said it definitely brings with it some challenges.
“There’s always gonna be a disadvantage when you’re a player coach, you don’t see everything from the sideline and it’s always harder to use the bench the way you want.”
Ivanhoe needed a big win to secure a top 2 finish and a home final, Hillston needed a win just to stay alive.
The Roosters started the better and dominated field position but Hillston kept in the hunt with a try to Lachie Brill.
An Ivanhoe send-off at halftime kept Hillston in the game, but the 12-men Roosters got over the top in the end, winning 26-10.
Finally, home side Rankins Springs had to win by more than 18 to get back into second spot, and started the worst way possible with Narrandera jumping out to a 20-0 lead after bashing the Dragons forwards early.
Dominating possession the Lizards only let in one try in the first half, up 26-6.
In the second half two intercept tries against the run of play put the result beyond doubt, before the Dragons fought for pride on their home turf and got back into it, scoring three tries late to make the score 42-22.
Finals week 1 action this weekend at Barellan will see last year’s Grand Finalists Rankins Springs and Narrandera face off for the second consecutive week in the Minor Semi Final, before the home side takes on Ivanhoe in the Major Semi.
Women’s Games
Hillston started the better in their clash with Ivanhoe with a runaway 80 metre try to Mel Nielsen.
They kept pace with Ivanhoe until the half, but the Hens strength won out in the end, coming home with three tries in the second half to win 18-4.
Barellan already had the minor premiership wrapped up but sure wanted that undefeated record to stay intact.
Rankins Springs kept them out early but later three tries to strong runner Lina Smith had them up 18-0 at the break.
The Dragonettes fought back in the second half and kept the Rams scoreless for a time, but two tries in the last three minutes blew the score out a bit to 30-0.
The first week of finals action will see Rankins Springs face Hillston in the Minor Semi, before Barellan and Ivanhoe play for a Grand Final spot in the Major Semi.
Battlers For Bush Footy 