Troy Barby will miss Kangaroos next two games after taking the early guilty plea.
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Barby was sent off in the Wagga club’s loss to Junee on Saturday and subsequently charged with a high tackle for his hit on Diesels front rower Simione Naiduki.
It was graded moderate by the match review panel and lock decided to take the two weeks on offer.
It means he will miss Saturday’s clash with Tumut as well as the game against Temora the following week.
Barby had just returned from a shoulder injury before the incident.
Blues co-coach Adam Pearce is also in doubt for the game at Equex Centre with an ankle injury.
Playing in his 100th first grade game for the club, Pearce came off midway through the first half in the loss to Young on Sunday.
However the Blues are hopeful it isn’t as bad as first feared.
“We’re not too sure, he’s getting scans,” co-coach Dean Bristow.
“It is not as bad as what we first thought but we won’t really know the prognosis until later in the week.”
The Blues became the first team to lose to Young all season.
It saw them slip out of the to four, but only on percentage.
Bristow wants the team to get back on track against Kangaroos, who they beat in the second round of the season, or risk falling ahead the main contenders.
“They were mighty tough when we played them over here the first time around but we will just be focusing on ourselves this week,” he said.
“We really need to make sure we get a couple of things in order and we have to respond this week with a win otherwise our season will slowly start to slip away.”
Bristow thought the wet conditions suited the Cherrypickers better on Sunday.
He was disappointed with how they let an early 10-0 lead slip.
“We put ourselves early in a position to walk away with it,” Bristow said.
“Unfortunately it fell my the wayside and we didn’t play the smartest footy there in the second half.
“It didn’t go our way.”
Tumut already has one of its key forwards, Ben Roddy, out with an ankle injury sustained in round three.
They are hopeful he will be back soon, but don’t want to rush the return.
“He ran the water for us on the weekend so he’s getting about,” Bristow said.
“We don’t want to rush him back as it was a pretty bad injury and the more time off it the better.
“Hopefully it’s two to three weeks.”
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