It was one of those moments that make a game great.
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An intercept in the final minutes of the preliminary final against the Narromine Gorillas by Ram’s Dave McKenzie, saw the side move straight through to the grand final beating Narromine 15 -13.
And to top it off the side gets a one week break before facing either Narromine or Mudgee on August 18.
Co-coach Cameron Cole said that all he asks is to have the exact same team playing exactly like they did on the weekend, no matter who they come up against.
“It doesn’t worry me who wins this weekend to tell the truth,” he said, “If we have the same team as we did last week we should have a good chance of winning because we have a lot of good players in key positions.”
The secret, it appears, in the Rams sauce is the blend of nuggety aged players and some fresh young ones.
“The older players have been around for quite some time and they really do help the young ones out and take some of the pressure off them,” Cole said.
“It’s been in the last six to eight weeks that I’ve thought if the boys play to their potential, and we have the one team on the field, we’d go very close in second grade.”
Cole said that he and his coaching partner Baz Hobby were just waiting for the game to end.
“They were really attacking our line fairly well for a couple of minutes and they went down the short side with a bit of an over lap. McKenzie got in between them, took the intercept and took off halfway up the field,” he said.
“He went out and they had one more play, one more crack at us, and our defence stood up, turned over the ball and then we kicked it out.”
For Cole and Hobby, that ending is what it’s all about.
“It really went down to the wire and we celebrated pretty well afterwards,” he said.
Usually having a week off means that a coach will be hoping sore bones will heal, but Cole said that his side was raring and fit to go.
“That side we had last week will likely be the same one on the 18th,” he said.