Temora's Angus McRae ready for his old club North Wagga but Roos unsure of Tim McAuley's future

“I’ll need eyes in the back of my head, I suppose,” McRae said with a laugh.

He spent the previous three years at the Saints but after moving back home to the farm this year, returned to his old club who he won a premiership with in 2014.

It’s been an invaluable return, with McRae at times holding the Roos’ defence together in a superbly consistent season (named in their best in 10 of 14 games).

“It’s been really good, being back with your school mates and getting around the locals again,” McRae said.

And what of his own form?

“Oh yeah. It’s been pretty good. Getting a few kicks every now and then,” he said.

“But this game is certainly going to tell us how we’re looking.”

The 21-year-old is playing down his own season. But he knows there’ve also been plenty of impressive performers for the Saints who are chasing an 11th straight win.

“Their run is their biggest strength, all around the ground,” McRae said.

“When you look at their team, you can’t fault any of their players. They’re all strong individual players.”

The game will also see the league’s two leading goalkickers in action – Temora’s Matt Wallis (51 goals) and North Wagga’s Daniel Jordan (53 goals), who kicked five in their last meeting.

“We won’t focus too much on him,” McRae said. “But he is the leading goalkicker and will be their go-to man so we might have to drop off and help each other out.”

Does he have any inside mail for his teammates? “I’ll just say, hit him hard and he’ll go to pieces, hahah.” 

Temora sit third, three wins off the Saints and Marrar who have only dropped one game each this year. But McRae believes they have the potential to match them.

“Last week, our second half was probably the best we’ve played all year but it’s taken a half-time spray to get us going the last two weeks,” he said.

“But if we can play a full game, we can give them a shake. It’s just a matter of getting in the right head space. 

“Maybe we all need to play half a game of ressies first to get going.”

The Roos won’t have midfielder Tim McAuley, who hasn’t played since injuring a shoulder in early June against Barellan.

“To be honest, we’re not banking on him playing again,” Temora coach Jake Wooden said. “If he does it will be a bonus but he’s still having trouble with it and he can’t get into a shoulder specialist.”

Forward Mark Breust is also in doubt for Saturday’s game with a back complaint. 

But Jack Irvine comes back in and is likely to play on a half-forward flank in a Roos outfit keen to not be too predictable up forward.

“There are a few things we’ll do a bit different,” Wooden said.

“We can be a bit predictable in how we use (Wallis) and going forward into our forward line.

“We’ve got to mix things up against North Wagga and see if they work.”

Temora have lost two of their last five games and the three wins weren’t particularly impressive, hanging on to beat the Northern Jets and having to dig themselves out of trouble with second half comebacks against East Wagga-Kooringal and The Rock-Yerong Creek.

“We have played some good footy over the last couple of weeks, it’s just a matter of stringing together four quarters and making sure we start well,” Wooden said.

“We’ve addressed a few things to try to improve our starts. And as soon as we finished at The Rock, talk turned to North Wagga so the boys are looking forward to it.