Temora have ruled out bringing in former premiership player Zeik Johnston to try to get their premiership campaign back on track at North Wagga on Saturday.
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Johnston was cleared to Temora this week with his Heathcote District League club, Lockington Bamawn, having the bye.
“He won’t be playing in the seniors,” Temora coach Christin Macri said.
“I don't see the point of bringing him in for one game, he’s still committed to his club down there.”
Charlie Vallance was named in defence for his return from a hamstring injury.
“We’ve got a couple of games coming up in the next two weeks (against East Wagga-Kooringal and The Rock-Yerong Creek) that we’ll probably need him down back for,” Macri said.
“And coming back from a hammy, does he need to just play and run around and not have that real short, sharp burst sort of thing that full forward allows?
“So, he could be either, that’s an honest answer.”
Rob Grant returns from an ankle injury while Josh Sheather is back in favour after he and Rob Krause were omitted for disciplinary reasons last round, when the Kangaroos went down to CSU.
“Regardless of the team we had in and who we had out – it’s not about that, it’s how you play and we didn’t play anywhere near good enough,” Macri said.
The Kangaroos are looking to avoid a third straight defeat but come up against a desperate North Wagga who have four big ins themselves – Nathan Dowdle, Daniel Jordan, Ben Alexander and Ryan Dean.
Despite a promising start to the year, Macri wasn’t sugar-coating how Temora are travelling after back-to-back losses against the Bushpigs and Marrar.
“I think I know where we are, we’re about middle of the road, our last two results have shown that clearly,” Macri said.
“We just need to somehow get the win this week, whatever way possible, probably with hard work and intensity.
“Defensively we’ve got to be a lot stronger and hard-nosed and really make a commitment to defending.”
