The Temora coach will know more next week about the extent of a shoulder injury to midfielder Kieran Shea, and will also use the long weekend to weigh up what changes he might bring to their game plan for round two.

Shea’s shoulder is the only real injury concern out of a high-quality opening round loss to Marrar.

“He’ll see the doctor but he doesn’t reckon it was too bad – he thinks he popped it out and in,” Wooden said.

“He’s done it to the other shoulder before and said he just has to wait til the bruising comes out, but it’s starting to already.”

Shea didn’t miss a game for the Roos last year and shapes as an important contributor in a team with a lot more depth this season.

Apart from the result, Wooden was pleased with what he saw of his new-look side at Langtry Oval, with the Roos recovering from a three-goal deficit at three-quarter-time to hit the front by a point, only to have the home side respond with three late goals.

“It was a pretty tough game and it went right down to the wire,” Wooden said. “I think we just ran out of legs and we had no bench in that last quarter.

“But it felt a bit like finals footy, with the weather being a bit warmer, the tempo was pretty quick, and there was a good crowd there.”

Wooden was particularly pleased with captain Charlie Vallance in defence and the return of forward Matt Harpley, who finished with 2.4 and will be improved for the outing – his first competition game in 20 months.

But the new coach also knows they’ll need to improve in a highly competitive league, beginning with CSU on Saturday week.

“We’ll try a few different things, change a few things that didn’t work for us,” Wooden said.

“Our team performance was definitely patchy – our biggest thing was skill errors letting us down a few times, off half-back and through the middle.

“Nearly every time we turned it over, it pretty much ended up in a goal. And our fitness was down a bit too. But it was good footy for round one.”

Temora will be the first team to take on the Bushpigs this season, who had the bye first-up and are coming off two heavy pre-season losses to Riverina League teams. 

And the Roos have a point to prove in their first home game, with memories of last year’s loss to CSU at Nixon Park still raw.