HUDDERSFIELD Rams Australian Rules Football Club embark on their fifth season in the AFL Central and Northern England League tomorrow.

They start in Wolverhampton, where the Rams face-off against Nottingham Scorpions and Wolverhampton Wolverines in a double header and are full of optimism and high expectations.

Buoyed by recent team and individual on-field successes as well as an increased off-field support and sponsorship, the Rams have never been in a healthier position.

The club are fresh from reaching the semi-finals of the prestigious traditional pre-season competition, The Haggis Cup, in Edinburgh.

Battling performances against Edinburgh Bloods, Manchester Mosquitoes and Tyne-Tees Tigers enabled the Rams to progress through the group stages to face the highly-fancied and more experienced Wimbledon Hawks in the last four.

A dramatic and composed fightback by Huddersfield agonisingly fell short at the final siren as the London team scraped through by just two points.

Europe Under 21 vice-captain Luke Booth and Rams founder Karl Haigh were rewarded for their and the team’s efforts by being named in the Haggis Cup ‘Team of the Tournament’, Booth for the second year in succession.

This competition saw the continued progress and development of the new players that the club picked up through their highly successful open training session held in Greenhead Park earlier in the year.

The Rams – who held a successful open training session in Greenhead Park to attract new players – now turn attention to the action proper, when they will be wearing their new Grosvenor Casino-sponsored kit.

The new kit will also carry the logo of men’s health charity ‘Balls to Cancer’ in a show of support by The Rams. The charity aims to raise funds for male cancer awareness, education and research, and the Rams will be supporting the charity for the next two years.

To celebrate the link-ups, the club held an official kit and season launch party at the casino.

The Rams will also celebrate another new partnership when they play their first home game of the season next weekend against the Leeds Minotaurs (Saturday 27th 12.30) at their new Huddersfield YMCA base.

The Rams have been training at the YMCA since February and look forward to establishing a strong base there.

Anyone interested in getting involved in the sport can join The Rams at training every Tuesday, (6.45 at YMCA, Laund Hill).