The Blues were the first – and so far, only – side to defeat reigning premier Mulwala in 2023, toppling the Lions by a point in round 10.
A fortnight later, Numurkah backed that up by recording yet another impressive result, this time a 12-point victory over pre-season fancy Congupna last weekend.
Now, the second-placed Blues will face their third huge challenge in a month when they face off against a Moama side directly below them on the ladder on Saturday afternoon.
“We are playing pretty good footy, which is exciting,” Numurkah coach Sean Harrap said.
“We get another challenge this weekend. In this block of games we have ticked two boxes, which is a good thing. But the challenge is there against another good team in Moama this week, which we are looking forward to.”
With second spot on the line, Harrap said he was anticipating the clash at Numurkah Showgrounds to be a good one.
“I think it will be a high-pressured game with two good teams going at it,” he said.
“They have a good mix of youth and experience, which is where we see ourselves as well. At the end of the day, we can only control our way of doing things and hopefully it is going to be good enough to get the win for us.
“If we can execute and use the footy well and bring really good intensity, it is going to take us a long way.”
On the other side of the match-up, Moama seems to have put two painful losses in back-to-back weeks in rounds seven and eight behind it, bringing a four-game winning streak into Saturday’s clash.
"The vibe has been positive actually,“ Moama assistant coach Jye Warren said.
“We're coming off some really consistent footy that we've been playing over four quarters and getting a couple of wins on the board, but the feeling is that the boys are really looking forward to the challenge.
“We had a disappointing few weeks there where we lost to Finley and just got over the line against Cobram and had a nice win against United. It's just good to be able to get back to have a bit of a challenge and I think you know the way that Numurkah are going at the moment, that's definitely what it's going to be.
“It's going to be a massive challenge for the group and they're looking forward to that."
Warren said the Magpies were expecting to have a strong side on the park.
"There will definitely be some changes this week, we've got a couple of guys coming off injury and a couple of blokes that were unavailable last week,“ he said.
“There's going to be some hard decisions to make at training to make sure that we put our best foot forward and have the best possible team out there."
In other match-ups this weekend, Nathalia will host Congupna in another clash between top-six rivals.
The fourth-placed Road and sixth-placed Purples are level on 28 points and are each one game ahead of Finley and Barooga in seventh.
The Cats will take on Tongala on Saturday, while Barooga will play host to Tocumwal.
Rumbalara will welcome Mulwala, while Deniliquin will battle against Cobram north of the border.
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