The Saints have set the scene for a blockbuster, sailing to their 12^th straight win on Saturday when they downed The Rock-Yerong Creek by 81 points.

With the Bombers enjoying the bye, the two teams will head into the round 18 encounter having had just one loss each throughout the season and Saints’ excitement has been building.

“Absolutely. Obviously you always want to take it one week at a time but I’ve got no doubt the boys have been looking ahead towards the Marrar game,” Hamblin said. “It’s massive for us and we can’t wait for the challenge.”

North Wagga dominated the Magpies throughout at Victoria Park although didn’t ram home the advantage in a wet first half when they kicked 4.12. 

But they reversed the trend after half-time, returning 11.4.

“The boys have got some real good habits with how we want to play football and it was hard for us to go away from that and adapt to the wet weather,” Hamblin said.

“We had a lot of inside 50s but didn’t convert our opportunities early but once the sun came out we turned that around and things went a bit better.”

Jordan certainly shone late, kicking six of his seven goals in the last quarter. The Pies could be forgiven for having nightmares about him, given Jordan kicked 13 when they met at McPherson Oval earlier in the year. 

But the win was again built in the middle where Jake May and Tom Bennetts were superb while Troy Curtis had a fine game across centre-half-back as the Saints roll towards the finals. 

“I think we’ve been building for a number of weeks now and I feel at the moment we’re playing the best football we’ve played all year,” Hamblin said. 

“Other teams are improving too but I feel like we’ve timed our run well and it’s going to be a massive game for us next week. Obviously if you finish on top you get the week off and you also get two cracks to get into the grand final. And if you could get a win, the confidence going into finals would be right up.

“But if we did happen to lose and finish second, I’d still be confident in the boys and the brand of football we’re playing, moving forward.”

Jim Carroll was best for TRYC who’ll chase their fourth win of the year against the Jets next week.