Sport
Deniliquin Rovers ready to defend Picola District Netball League premiership against Katunga in the big dance
Three hundred and sixty-three days ago, Carissa Bulmer had pulled off the unthinkable.
As A-grade playing coach of Deniliquin Rovers, she’d just lifted the premiership cup after a Picola District Netball League grand final win over Katandra, snapping a five-year flag drought in the process.
This weekend, her assignment is slightly separate.
The opposition is different — albeit by a few letters of the alphabet — and she is no longer the mentor, having handed the reins to Alex Glowrey for 2024.
But the end goal remains the same: play hard, beat Katunga and lift the trophy once again.
“We’re all pretty excited leaning into another grand final,” Bulmer said.
“We’re pretty much doing the same thing, sticking to our same routines and just enjoying finishing up on another season.”
The Rovers’ road to the finals has perhaps been a tad more treacherous in 2024 than it was last season.
In 2023, Bulmer and company went flawless in the home and away season and iced the cake with a 39-25 grand final victory over the Kats on a postcard-perfect day at Strathmerton.
Despite only suffering two losses during 2024’s regular campaign — one of which came against Katunga — some apprehension could’ve hung over the Rovers heading into finals without an ‘immortal’ tag hanging off their dresses.
Safe to say, that was far from the story.
Glowrey’s girls shrugged off Katandra in the qualifying bout and danced past minor premier Katamatite 35-30 in the prelim, shoring up patterns of play that Bulmer thinks will be key against Katunga.
“We just kept possession of the ball which is our biggest thing that we work on,” she said.
“Every turnover we got we’ve got to convert — we know that. We’ve got to apply that relentless pressure for the full 60 minutes that we play.”
Bulmer went on to praise her defence’s form heading into such a high-stakes clash, lauding the likes of goalkeeper Natalie Sampson, goal defender Chloe Way and midcourter Gabrielle Barlow.
They’ll all need to hit their straps against the Swans, who had the last laugh when these two powers last went toe-to-toe.
“That was sort of an awkward game really; we thought we didn’t bring our standard of netball to that game, so we were quite disheartened with it,” Bulmer said.
“But I think we’ve built on that and have recouped from that — we’ve worked hard at training, revisited the game, thought about how we could change and what we could do.
“It’s all about that possession, moving that ball and creating that depth.”