The Rock-Yerong Creek will try to pick themselves up from one of their worst ever losses and fight to keep their season alive at Ardlethan on Saturday.
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The Magpies are coming off a 160-point loss to North Wagga last week, when they had just seven scoring shots to 47, in a game Tom Yates concedes was his toughest yet as coach.
"It was, and it was the biggest loss I can remember since probably juniors I reckon," Yates said.
"It was hard to take. We sort of addressed it at half-time because they had a fair jump on us by then (70 points).
"I hoped the boys would've responded but North Wagga played a four-quarter game of footy and just put us away.
"We lacked effort. We were just flat and the effort wasn't there, so that was disappointing. And obviously they played really well, so that was a credit to them.”
Their sixth straight loss left the Pies in seventh, two wins outside the five and one below the Northern Jets.
“It's do-or-die this week. I think we all know that,” Yates said.
“If we don't win this week, it's not all-but-gone, but it's going to make it very hard. So the boys will all be aware of that.”
It won’t be easy, with the Jets boosted by the return from suspension of their best player this season, Jack Fisher, while their best player of last season, Alex Rogers, comes in for his second game this year after overcoming a knee injury suffered in round one. Rogers has been named at full-forward with youngster Mitch Doyle going out with a thumb injury.
The Pies also have two big inclusions with defenders Casey Hillary back from a hand injury and Aiden Ridley playing his first game after injuring a knee in the pre-season. Michael Coombes is also back and Harri White named on an extended bench.
But as has been the case for much of the year, TRYC also have a couple of new injuries, with Dan Fellows (hamstring) and Ted Fellows (back) both going out.
Matt Murray (knee) and Derek Murray (ankle) both missed last week’s loss and are likely to be sidelined for another couple of weeks, while assistant coach Tim Sullivan (hand) hasn’t played since the Anzac Challenge.
With one win in seven games, the Pies are in danger of having their worst start to a season in recent memory.
In 2014, when they missed finals for the first time in a decade, they’d still had two wins in their first eight games.
But they need to rebound after a red-hot North Wagga.
“They played a really good brand of footy. I think if they continue to play like that they'll be hard to beat all year really,” Yates said. “Marrar and North Wagga are both good sides but obviously North Wagga give us a fair old touch up. It's hard to pick who's the benchmark. You'll soon find out this weekend.”