By round four, they were at home to East Wagga-Kooringal with both desperate to avoid a third straight loss.

“Obviously at the start we dropped a few games and I thought, ‘Shivers, what’s going on here?’ Yates admits.

“I was feeling the pressure after a couple of losses, personally. When we did have the win against East Wagga it was a bit of a relief.”

Having said that, it was only round four. And TRYC had only lost two games. 

But the 57-point loss to Marrar in the annual Anzac Challenge, was followed by a poor first quarter leading to defeat at North Wagga. 

If it was cause for concern among the Magpies faithful, it was also a test of character for the coach.

“You back yourself and believe what you’re doing is going to be right,” Yates says.

“I knew in myself that the style of footy that we wanted to play is the same style that everyone wants to play. But it was a matter of the boys clicking and getting the process right come game-day.”

He also called a few old coaches just to let them know how much more respect he has for the job now. 

Yates is confident that his side has come a long way since April, with five wins and one loss (Temora). But their next four games are against the other four top sides, beginning with the “massive” return game against Marrar.

 “Obviously we were disappointed. We knew Marrar were going to be a very good side and with Sparks (Shane Lenon) coaching them we knew they’d be cherry ripe for the start of the season,” Yates says.

“It was disappointing to lose but it gave us something to strive forward to. And we’ll see how we go this time around, I suppose.”

There’s a hint of a smile with that last answer, suggesting coaching is bringing shivers of excitement rather than worry now.

But Yates isn’t silly enough to get excited mid-season.

“I am enjoying it,” he says. “But there’s a fair bit of water to go under the bridge yet.”

Marrar come in hoping to avoid consecutive losses, after falling to Temora last week.

Yates doesn’t believe there’s much between the top six sides in the competition, pointing out they’re all dangerous if they can get on the outside. 

“I just think the whole game – even in AFL – you’ve got to run,” he says. “It’s about being quick with the ball.”

It means the season is likely to boil down to who can show the most improvement. 

“It’s coming together slowly,” he says. 

With a few new faces, he expected it would take time to gel. But he’s been pleasantly surprised by the development.

“It’s been good because last year there was a few blokes who didn’t want to play ones and obviously this year a few blokes have stepped up and are playing,” he says, rapt in the form of Aaron Meyers, Jordan Kemp (who’s out this week with an ankle injury), Michael Coombes, Scott Wolter and Ryan Kirkwood. 

“And I really think their contributions are going a long way to us winning games.” 

As well as new faces, the Pies have had to adjust to life without an Andy Carey at full-forward.

Yates says they have a good mix of experienced players with “smarts” as well as speed.

“But you can't just bomb it in and put it on Andy Carey’s head like we did in previous years,” he says.

“So we’ve had to adjust to that and I think sometimes we forget about that, and that’s when we get a bit behind.

“But once we switch back on and play how we want to play going into the forward line, that’s when we start to score a bit more freely.”

They’re also without centre-half-forward Dale Hugo, who accepted a two-week suspension for making front-on contact with the Jets’ Jayden McLean. 

“It’s one of those ones, it was a 50-50 call,” Yates says.

“If you had video evidence it might be a different story but it’s a split second incident and I might be looking at it from a different angle from another bloke.

“It’s disappointing to have him out. But at the same time, we’re happy he’s only got the two weeks.”

Mitch Leaver comes into the side for Hugo, marking a return to seniors for the former Pies premiership player. 

Midfielder Shannon Williams returns from injury for Marrar, while Jesse Cunningham comes in at full-back for Geoff Spriggs.