Barely had the siren rang against Coleambally and the Roos were looking ahead to their qualifying final this Saturday at Maher Oval.

“I can’t wait for North Wagga next week, to rip in,” Temora coach Jake Wooden said.

The Saints are the only team to beat Temora since round eight, handing out a 66-point hiding at McPherson Oval last month.

“We definitely owe them one, 11 goals,” Wooden said.

“A few of the boys straight after the game said, ‘we’ve got North Wagga now’.

“Training will be intense this week, pressure-wise. We really want to hit the finals campaign running.”

Having put together four straight wins since the loss at McPherson Oval, Temora intend on taking the shortest route through finals.

“Hopefully it’s three games (the qualifying final, second semi-final and grand final), that’s the idea,” Wooden said.

“If we play our best footy, I know we’ll be there. But you can’t get too far ahead so we’re just worried about North Wagga for now.”

Wooden knows their potent forward line is only as good as the midfielders up the ground.

“One-on-one they’re hard to man up on and (against Coleambally) we were getting it in quick. Coly had blokes back – they literally had no forward line – but we still found space and hit them up. But it starts in the middle.

“It was good but we’ll be extremely focussed on the midfield this week and making sure we’re up and about. 

This weekend marks a return to finals for both clubs after Temora and North Wagga failed to make the five last year. 

Meanwhile, East Wagga-Kooringal aren’t underestimating their old nemesis, The Rock-Yerong Creek in Sunday’s elimination final.

It’ll be their first meeting in finals since 2015 when TRYC won their semi-final encounter and then claimed a dramatic grand final victory. 

The teams have had a win each this year, with the Pies prevailing at home in round five and EWK returning the favour at Gumly two months later.

“They’re a good side, and they’ve certainly got some match winners in their side too,” Hawks coach Gavin McMahon said.

The Magpies are coming off a bye and, before that, a loss to Barellan. 

In contrast, EWK will go in with plenty of confidence after beating the Northern Jets on Saturday to qualify for finals.

But McMahon said they’re fully aware that improvement is needed. 

“If we’d had another four home-and-away rounds we’d have hit our straps,” he said. 

“Now we have to keep trying to improve at the toughest time of the year but we’ve got nothing to lose from here.”

The Hawks will stick with the workmanlike approach that’s served them reasonably well this season, and back their ability to compete.

“I think the only way we can approach is exactly the same way as we have all year, which is just focussing on trying to get our guys playing decent footy,” he said.

“If we’re playing decent footy we feel we’re sort of in it against most sides.

“And we have been, even against the sides that have beaten us - and a couple that have beaten us comfortably - we’ve certainly been in it at times.

“So we’ve just got to make sure we’re up and about, and healthy worried about our own footy, to be honest.”