THE Rock-Yerong Creek captain-coach David Pieper is happy with the Magpies start to the season but is confident the best is still to come.
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The Magpies sit in second position on the Farrer League ladder courtesy of a strong start to the year that has yielded four wins and two narrow losses.
TRYC lost the top-of-the-table clash to undefeated East Wagga-Kooringal by 17 points before last weekend's representative bye.
TRYC enjoyed an amazing recruitment drive over the off-season and it resulted in an influx of quality players to the Magpies.
Pieper said it will take time to hit their straps and he is happy with his team's progress to date.
“With how close the competition is, I’m definitely happy with the way we’re going,” Pieper siad.
“I’m happy with where we are, I would like to be five and one, the Marrar loss was disappointing but we’ve addressed that and our enthusiasm is a lot better now.
“It way always going to take some time to gel with all our new blokes, you look at East Wagga last year and now they’ve played together for 12 months they’re probably four or five weeks ahead of every other club.
“Finding the right balance is my biggest thing at the moment.”
TRYC should welcome back Dale Hugo, Gus Keogh, Casey Hillary and Bryan Ball for Saturday’s home game against Coleambally.
In further good news, Mark Ward will return to the club and play his first game in reserve grade.
Josh Ashcroft is out with a broken thumb.
Pieper is happy to have Ward, a premiership player, back at the Magpies.
“We knew we were going to be without him in the first six games,” he said.
“He’ll have to come through the seconds and prove himself like all the others have had to, which is good for the club.”
Coleambally come into the game on the back of a strong win over Marrar at Langtry Oval.
Pieper has plenty of respect for the Blues.
“Coly are always physical, they’ve got big bodies and with guys like Pound, Mackie, Carroll, they’ve got the ability to kick goals from outside 50 so we’ve got to be on our toes,” he said.
“We want to take some pride in our home ground advantage, that’s one of our big goals this year so hopefully we can play our best and the scoreboard will look after itself.”
Pieper himself is back in full training after struggling with a hip injury early in the year.
Only percentage separates TRYC and Coleambally in second and third position on the competition ladder heading into Saturday.
