WATCH: Ovens and Murray Football Netball League preview with Andrew Moir and Georgia Smith

The Border Mail

Ovens and Murray Football Netball League preview with Andrew Moir and Georgia Smith. Discussing best recruits, likely grand finalists, and all this football and netball.

Transcript

00:00Fantastic. Hi, my name's Andrew Moyer and welcome to the 2025 Umbers and Murray

00:04Football and Netball League season and I'm joined by my colleague Georgia Smith.

00:08Hi Georgia, how are you? Good, thanks Fred, how are you? Well thank you. Now we often talk about a long

00:12offseason. Everyone in any sport talks about a long offseason but it literally

00:16has been. It'll be 195 days from the grand final to the first game on Saturday

00:22and for those who missed finals last year it's gonna be 231 days. That's

00:27nearly eight months without a competitive game of footy. Again, everyone

00:31says it's a long offseason but it literally has been. Let's jump into the

00:35netball. What's your thoughts on the netty this year? Yeah, I think it's shaping up

00:39to be a pretty strong competition but for me I think Coral or Rubber Glen

00:44with the recruits that they've got. Emily Laracy coming back in from

00:47apprenticeship with Yarrawonga and then Gabe McCrae coming in from Albury as

00:51well. I think Coral is going to be pretty strong this season. Terrific. Same top

00:56three as last year do you think? Like we finished with Yarrawonga, Raiders and

00:59Coral or Rubber Glen. Do you think it's going to be the same top three? Yeah, I think it's

01:02going to be pretty consistent. Yarrawonga are going to be strong again. I would say

01:06they've maintained a lot of players from last season and same with Raiders and

01:10Raiders have picked up Lily McKimmy from Wodonga as well so she's going to be

01:15very handy for them. Who's your recruiter this season? Who's the name

01:19player you think will make the biggest impact? Yeah, I think Lily off the

01:24back of last season with Wodonga. She had a sensational season there and she's

01:28only really young so I think she's going to be a really great recruit for Wodonga

01:33Raiders and she can play at either end of the court. And then yeah, like I

01:36mentioned before, having Gabe and Emily Laracy come back for Coral are there.

01:40Yeah, very good inclusions as well. Who plays

01:44grand final? Who wins? I'm gonna say a... No pressure. Thank you. I'm gonna say

01:53maybe Coral are Raiders grand final. Sort of similar to the prelim of last

02:00season. That was a very strong and very close contest and I yeah I think it may

02:05be, I'm gonna say Coral this year. I hope I'm not throwing you on the spot

02:09but I don't think either of those teams have won a grand final in the O&M. Yeah

02:13that's right. We've seen Raiders get so close the last two seasons, obviously

02:18two grand final appearances, so yeah it would definitely be the first for them

02:22if they were able to do it and yeah I believe Coral has been in the same

02:25position as well. Fantastic. And we should say too, I know we're sitting very close,

02:29it's only because the table is so small so we do get along well, Georgia and I,

02:32perhaps not quite that well. So if you're wondering why we're on top of each other,

02:36it's a very small table. It's like a card table actually. It is pretty close in here. My word it is, it's quite warm.

02:41Moving on to the footy, it's been another massive offseason. Gosh there's been so

02:47many, so many recruits have come in. There would be tens and tens of recruits have

02:51come in. Let's go through the recruits of the year. I mean you're looking, it's

02:56hard to go past Nathan Cooper from Wangaratta Rovers, a Werribee

02:59Premiership player, VFL Team of the Year member. Tyler Roose has come to Coral

03:05Rugby and he's had a stint here previously, we know how good a player he is.

03:08And Will Fordham from Wodonga Raiders, he played at Williamstown last year, got

03:12injured mid-year but up until that stage, or even after he got injured, he still

03:16featured in the best in 11 and 21. So late 20s, he looks like he's still in the

03:21prime of his career. So they're probably the three big recruits. Some of the

03:26stories around the season, well is Myrtleford the new North Albury? I mean

03:30you just get the impression North Albury, 20-22 Woodenspoon, 23 moved up to 6th, 24

03:37got to a pre-limb. Myrtleford, 23 Woodenspoon, 24 moved up to 8th but still had

03:43eight wins, only two wins out of the five. So can Myrtleford do it? I mean just

03:48imagine the buzz, Georgia and Myrtleford, if they were able to get up. I know

03:51there's there's plenty of pressure on them to do that and they would put

03:54pressure on themselves but gee, it'd be great for the league, wouldn't it? It would be.

03:58You love to see the small towns doing well, don't you? Yeah, and I'll ask you the

04:02same question. Grand Final Day, who do you think is going to be there and who wins?

04:07I think Rovers play Yarrawonga, sorry, against the Grand Final rematch and I reckon

04:15Rovers just. I mean Rovers are actually stronger than they were last year. I

04:20think so many of us just find it hard to believe that Yarrawonga got beaten. I

04:24mean they'd won 29 or 30 games heading into that Grand Final. They'd beaten Rovers

04:29by the best part of 12 goals, a fortnight earlier. They kicked the first couple of

04:33goals in the first six or seven minutes. They must have thought here it comes but

04:36Rovers were outstanding. And it was just, look, bitterly disappointing for

04:41Yarrawonga, naturally enough, but for the competition. We just spoke about the

04:45North Aubrey's and the Moodlefords hopefully coming up this year. Well, Rovers

04:48had been a regular finalist in recent years but to come from, they finished

04:53fifth the previous year, to winning the competition again, I know Yarrawonga

04:58would be bitterly disappointed but it was great for the competition, just gave the

05:00comp an enormous buzz. Hopefully can do the same this year. Is there anything in

05:05particular, I'm going to throw this at you off the top, is there anything in particular

05:08you're most looking forward to this year? That's a good question. Have to be the

05:13Roos wouldn't it? Cora Rutherglen in the, well probably the footy and the netball

05:17really. Yeah, yeah, the footy and netball. It'll be interesting to see how they go. Like we

05:22said before, it would be great for, I guess, the history of the league to have

05:25a Premier that hasn't won before. That would be, yeah, I suppose that would be

05:31something, yeah, something interesting if it was to fall that way. Sure, so no

05:35pressure on Rooters or Cora Rutherglen. No pressure. No pressure at all. Or Yarrawonga if they

05:40made it 11 premierships, 11 A-grade netball premierships, I think it was 10 last year. They're remarkable, just their

05:47ability to consistently be there, aren't they? Yeah. The Melbourne storm of the O&M

05:51netball, there's no doubt about that. Look, we hope everyone has a great season, kicks

05:55off on Saturday. Remember the O&M lift out was in the Bordemarle today, that's

05:59Wednesday, so hopefully April too. So hopefully everybody has a look at it.

06:03Hope you have a great season. Thanks for your time and we'll see you around the

06:06grounds.

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