Katrina Fanning Shield: Minor Semi Final Preview

The Woden Valley Rams and Yass Magpies battle it out, in a do or die Minor Semi Final this Sunday afternoon at Raiders Belconnen. 

Sitting inside the top two for majority of the 2025 season, a loss to the Belconnen United Sharks last weekend sees the Rams finish the regular season in third position. 

In the 22 - 4 defeat last weekend, the Rams struggled with their completion rate, with their dummy half Indi Dyball stating this is a clear focus heading into this weekend. 

“It was pretty tough, we all know as a group that we need to fix up our errors and the rest should come together,” Dyball said. 

This weekend provides the Rams with a chance at redemption; their 2024 campaign ended on this corresponding weekend, with Woden believing the work they've put in will help them on Sunday. 

“The girls have only gotten better this year, and we worked so hard over preseason to get where we are now.”

“I think just stick to what we do and stick to our structure. Our coaches have put in all the work for us, so we’ll put in the work for them this weekend hopefully.”

Meanwhile, the Yass Magpies enter this weekend off the back of a victory against the Tuggeranong Bushrangers which locked in their finals berth, which ensuring they get the chance to defend their title. 

Despite the victory, fullback Roxy Horne noted that there were areas where the Magpies can improve heading into this weekend. 

“We started off a bit rough, haven’t got much of a bench at the moment so struggling with that a lot, rotating numbers with our middles," Horne said. 

"We proved in the second half that we could do it and made it in the end, so we are happy with our result.”

The Magpies have been drastically impacted by injuries this season, specifically their captains Gabby Davis and Sami Afele, with a shoulder and knee respectively. 

However, the group can draw confidence from their 2024 premiership campaign where they had a similar experience. 

“We had heaps of injuries going into finals last year and we all stepped up to another level and showed them what we could do.”

The Magpies have the tough task of shutting down Rams fullback Lara Cosgrove, who swept the KFS awards at the Les McIntyre Medal awards night on Wednesday, with Horne stating the key to shutting down her opposite number is doing it together. 

“I think our defensive line knows exactly what they need to do, it's just whether we execute it the way we tried.

"The keys are just pushing up, stopping any space, cutting it off early is what our plan is this weekend.

For one team their 2025 journey finishes on Sunday, for the other it will extend for another week with a matchup against the loser of the Warriors vs Sharks matchup.