Magpies A-grade coach Jodie Lake is looking forward to what is always a close contest between the two sides.
“It's always good fun playing Echuca United being a bit of a, well, not grudge match. It's, you know, just the derby I guess you call it,” she said.
“Just always big hype, you're often playing against some of your friends, I'm playing against one of my footy teammates. It's always a really good competition against them.”
For Moama, the match will also represent an opportunity to bounce back from a disappointing round one, when it fell by six goals to Mulwala in a match it expected to win.
“It wasn't expected,” Lake said of the 38-32 loss.
“But also you start fresh, you don't know what to expect with all the other teams. You don't know who they've picked up and what they might be like.
“You always sort of want to start with that win, so (this week is) definitely a bit of a revenge match too, just to fight back from last week.
“We're wanting to play a little bit better than we did, especially get a good start as opposed to last week, so really looking forward to that challenge.”
A relatively unchanged line-up will take to the court for Moama, with just the one change as it looks to open its account for season 2023.
"It will be relatively similar,” Lake said.
“We've just got Fallon Lieschke back in the midcourt. She'll be a really good driving force. She was away last week, so looking forward to having her back against her old side."
Reflecting on what needs to be changed from last week to ensure a better performance from her side this week, Lake was certain the team would adjust accordingly.
"All it was last week, certainly I feel like we were the better side, we just had a really slow start,” she said.
“We've talked about that and we're going to come out of the blocks firing hopefully tomorrow and, yeah, sort of build on that and go from there.”
Echuca United will also be looking to bounce back from a disappointing round one, which saw it suffer a 20-goal loss to Tongala, 59-39.
Tongala currently sits inside the top four on the ladder courtesy of the win, and will look to move even higher when it takes on Nathalia on Saturday afternoon away from home.
Goulburn Valley League
Echuca will look to build on its 2022 finals appearance when it begins the new season this Saturday afternoon at Victoria Park.
Finishing the home-and-away season in fourth position last season, it was unable to progress past the elimination final stage, bowing out in a 38-41 loss at the hands of Euroa in a tightly contested game.
Speaking ahead of the season, new A-grade coach Belinda Lees was excited about the youth the club had produced, notably Raina Fimmel, who claimed best-on-court honours in the under-17 premiership, as well as twins Lilli and Jorja Oliver, who are stepping up to the senior ranks.
“Our 17s won the flag last year and so we’ve got numerous players who will move up into the A-grade squad,” Lees said.
“We’re moving into a new era and it will take time but we need to stay the course.”
Echuca’s A-grade netball side will be on-court at 2.15pm, taking on a Tatura side that struggled last season, winning just two games.
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