Echuca United’s Diaz Agg and Matthew Lias and Moama’s Lachlan Carmody and Chelsey Wright will each battle to bring the Three Jacks Trophy to their respective clubs.
Photo by
JORDAN TOWNROW
After a taster of the new football/netball season last weekend, the year begins in earnest over a blockbuster Easter weekend.
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For local Murray League fans, no clash is more iconic than the Three Jacks Trophy, contested twice yearly between rivals Echuca United and Moama.
The trophy, recognising the contributions of three Jacks, Moama’s Jack Eddy, Echuca South’s Jack Hay and Echuca East’s Jack O’Neill, to each club’s history, is awarded to the club with the best overall performance across all 11 grades of football and netball.
Moama has held a stranglehold over the trophy in recent seasons, but as always, United will be bullish that now could be its time to reclaim the silverware.
For the Mowers, the Good Friday contests, at Moama Recreation Reserve, mark the club’s first action of the season, with both the senior and A-grade sides looking to back up strong 2025 seasons.
The senior side looked to be a likely grand final contender for much of last year, but missed out on a top-two spot in the final regular season round, posting a record of 14-4.
After surviving an elimination final, the Mowers were ousted from the competition by an in-form Cobram, the Tigers going on to claim an unlikely premiership over favourite Congupna.
Moama has looked to proven success in the coach’s chair this season, welcoming back Shannon Keam to co-coach alongside marquee recruit and 151-game AFL veteran Jake Carlisle.
As the Mowers’ last premiership coach, Keam is familiar with the Three Jacks clash.
"Obviously, we're pretty blessed, both sides, to play this game on Good Friday,” he said.
"It's been going on for near on 25 years or something, we're probably the pioneers of Good Friday football.
“It's become a bit of a calendar event each year, with the town swelling in numbers with tourists, so it makes for a good day at the football."
Along with its recruits, Moama has up-and-coming talent to lean on, the reserves side claiming the premiership last season, and the club’s under-17s reaching the grand final.
In netball, Moama continued its presence as a strong overall program in 2025.
The A-grade side reached the finals, finishing fourth (10-1-7), but was knocked out in the elimination final by two goals by eventual preliminary finalist Tongala.
Across the grades, the club won the 13- and 15-and-under crowns, while reaching deciders in B-grade and 17-and-under.
The coach of the 15-and-under triumph, Carri Carter, has taken on the A-grade coaching role this season and links up with a young and dynamic squad.
“Most of these girls haven’t played together before, so it’s a new side and a young side,” she said.
“I’m really excited because young means exciting to me.
“We have Chelsey Wright and Eesha Clark, our oldest two leading the way, so our oldest on the court is 25, and then we’ve got all girls who are 15-, 16-, 17- and 18-year-olds, so really exciting to see them build and grow, and I think that will happen really quickly.”
With the Echuca United coach Leesa Hooppell formerly at Moama, and several of her squad also ex-Mowers, Carter sees the rivalry as fierce but friendly.
“We’ll be rivals during the game, and then we’ll hug after, and I feel like a lot of those girls who are playing up, like Coby Morgan, Diaz Agg, Tiah Hooppell, they’ve all come from Moama,” she said.
“My running buddy plays for Echuca United, so I think when you step on to the court, it’s just for that one hour or so that we become rivals, but then afterwards you get off, and it’s a friendly rivalry, friendly banter in between, but we all respect each other.”
Echuca United and Moama are up for a Good Friday blockbuster.
Photo by
JORDAN TOWNROW
For Keam, United’s game last week had positives and negatives for both sides, but the opponent isn’t his main focus.
"Generally, we’re a 90-10 arrangement, 90 per cent worrying about ourselves, 10 per cent worrying about what those guys are doing at this time of the year,” he said.
“While (last week) was a good chance to get a look at them, at the same time they can look at it in regards to match fitness, they’ve got one up on us.”
Echuca United got one fixture under its belt headed into the Three Jacks showdown and although both the A-grade and senior sides went down, there was plenty to take away from the competitive season openers.
The Eagles seniors are looking to build on a 58-72 loss to Deniliquin Rams, in which they led by four goals early but were run down in the second half.
Coach Francis Lias isn’t expecting the Mowers to show any rust, suiting up for their first official game of the season.
“They’re going to come in fired up,” he said.
“They've had plenty of opportunity to get their processes right, so we'll just worry more about what we're doing.
“We probably did fall into this trap (in round one) when we got four goals ahead, thinking we were going to just walk straight over the top of them, we don’t want to be giving Moama any opportunities like that.”
A youthful Echuca United A-grade squad battled hard against Deniliquin, but fell by five goals, 46-51.
Boss Hooppell hopes the opening round has helped tune up her girls for the Three Jacks.
“(Moama’s) a very experienced, very well-drilled club through the seniors, right through to the junior sides, and they're always up there,” she said.
“It will be a challenge, but we look forward to giving it a crack.
“We got to blow the cobwebs out a little bit, I know what I have to work on a bit more this week at training, and hopefully that’ll benefit us come Friday.”
The Three Jacks trophy will be held at Moama Recreation Reserve on Friday, with the first football clashes to be held at 9.15am, and the netball getting started at 9.45am.
The A-grade netball begins at 1.30pm, with the senior football taking place from 2pm.
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