Magpies coach David Pieper said he’s avoided mentioning the Hawks’ injured pair Ben Absolum and Stuart Brierty in the build-up to the semi-final. 

“I’ve actually made sure we didn’t talk about that at all,” said Pieper.

“Look, they’re a classy outfit all across the field.”

Pieper said the unbeaten Hawks deserve to be raging favourites but he has faith in his cool heads.

“East Wagga are by far the best side for the whole year, but one of the things in our favour is we’ve got a lot of experienced blokes who have played in premierships and finals series, and we can use that calmness on the weekend.”

Last week’s win over North Wagga wasn’t perfect but Pieper said it was an ideal preparation.

”I think that game was really good for us because they’re such a quick team, North Wagga. 

“We were a bit flat, we’d had the week off prior, but we’ve got a finals game under our belt now and we go in confident in our ability.”

Pieper is backing defender Casey Hillary against leading goalkicker, Marc Geppert, but said there’s not much margin for error for either team, with 10-goal star Andy Carey at the other end.

“Casey played really well on Gep last time… but if it’s coming in laces out, no-one’s going to be able to stop those two full forwards.”