But this season with a new-look side, a new sense of belief and some raucous support at home the Dubbo side is not only winning but also making its way up the table.

The Rams overcame a sluggish first half to ease past the winless Illawarra Hawks 84-59 at the Woolshed on Saturday evening to move up to a 50 percent win rate for the first time in recent seasons.

The Rams now sit inside the competition’s top 12 with five wins from 10 matches.

“It keeps us in touch with where we need to be,” Rams’ player-coach Damien Reid said of Saturday’s win.

“We can still make finals. We need to make that top eight. We’ve got St George next weekend and if we beat them we’ll be on the same as them and they’re in eighth.”

American Conrad Etchi again produced a huge game for the Rams on Saturday night, dropping 39 points on the Hawks while Shayne Brown again proved a handy sidekick.

But none of the Rams players were at their best early on, particularly in the second quarter, when the Hawks took the lead and there was some nerves in the stands as the visitors appeared more than capable of recording a first win for 2017.

“We played an extraordinarily ordinary second quarter and we actually went into the break down by two,” Reid said.

“But in the second half we basically realised we needed to wake up to ourselves.

“Before the game we spoke about the chance to put a bit of a score on and I think we lost our focus on just winning the game.

“But we got better and the fourth quarter was when we did our most damage.”

Reid was pleased with his side’s ability to get back to its best midway through the match, something which proved difficult in recent seasons.

The Rams refused to get flustered or stray from the game plan despite trailing at the main break and Reid stated the support of the home crowd was again a contributing factor in the comeback.

“It’s not just us. It’s the people around us,” he said.

“People are noticing we’re better this season than other seasons.”

While Etchi again starred, making it 80 points scored in the past two games, there was contributions from a number of the Rams, with Reid singling out Michael Bonney for his effort in defence.

One negative so far this season had been the side’s tendency to completely rely on its star import but Reid was pleased with the all-round effort on Saturday.

“It was a big team effort,” he said.

“Of the 10 guys we had I think eight of them got points on the board so there was more of an effort from everyone to do what they can and that was good.”