Key forward Fred Sleeth and good mate Curtis Allen both played under Bombers coach Shane Lenon at Collingullie five years ago.

Lenon said their signing is no done deal but if the two good mates are available to play enough games in the back half of the season, Marrar hope to bring them on board.

“I’m quietly confident that the job will be right,” Lenon said.

“They won’t play every game and there’s still a few things to work out yet but we think we can have them firing come finals time.

“The main thing was to get the clearances first. They’re keen to be a part of it but there’s a few things to work out still.”

Availability is the main query with four games the cut-off for players to be eligible for finals.

Lenon said they’ve been lucky to learn of the possible availability of the pair in time to still be able to explore it.

Allen, a midfielder who can also go forward, hasn’t been playing this season. Sleeth was at Lismore but is coming off another year in Darwin. He also has North East Australian Football League experience. 

“He’s a key position player, a good size and a pretty good player. They fell in our lap a little but but it could be lucky for us,” Lenon said, pointing out their injuries to key forwards.

“Obviously with John Hoey breaking his leg and Turns (Brad Turner) hasn’t played a game yet this year and is a week-to-week proposition with his back, we’re lucky to come across Fred.

“We’re still hopeful that they’ll both play (Hoey and Turner) but it could be handy.”

Teenage forward Nathanael Mooney is also out injured while the Bombers released key defender Jesse Cunningham to play at Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes. 

The Bombers do have midfielders Brad Langtry and Shannon Williams back for this Saturday’s game at Temora, although Jack Reynolds (head knock), Jeremy Rowe (hamstring) and Jackson Sanbrook (pec) are also sidelined and Mitch Taylor is unavailable.

Lenon says they need to improve on last week’s hot-and-cold effort against Charles Sturt University and the loss the week before to North Wagga.

“We’re probably not playing as good a footy as we were a month back but we did the same in the middle of last year,” Lenon said.

“You can’t expect a side to be at their top all year. But Temora at Temora is going to be a big test for us. They beat us over there last year but we’re looking forward to it.

“Hopefully we can improve in a couple of areas that let us down last week when our consistency was good for two quarters and we struggled for two quarters.”

Lenon said closing down leading goalkicker, Matt Wallis, will be critical.