As far as early season fixtures go, Coleambally coach Mitch Carroll sees Saturday's home game against Barellan as a crucial one, and is thankful they'll have one of their strongest sides.
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Coming off a bye last week, the Blues can stay in equal fifth on the ladder and open up a three-game margin on Barellan and, potentially, The Rock-Yerong Creek (who are away to North Wagga) if they secure their second win.
"I think it'll be big for both teams but we really need to get a win. We've got a pretty strong team," Carroll said, noting the inclusion of Todd Clark, Jesse Spencer, Jacob Breed and rising young representative star Jack Cullen.
"Jack's been in the Giants and he played a game for North Albury last week."
But against a desperate Two Blues side, which hasn't been far off its first win a couple of times this year, Carroll said the pressure will be on his midfielders.
"Obviously Sean Ellis is one to watch but we really haven't focussed on them," he said. "We've worked pretty hard on our on-ball and forward structure the last few weeks. Just our lapses are a massive thing we need to work on... hopefully we can knock a few little things out and play the game on our terms a bit."
Coleambally went down to Temora last start but almost all the damage was done in a 15-minute period in the second quarter.
Charlie McAdam and Chris Hayes led their efforts that day and Carroll hopes with some speed on the bench, in Shaun Light, Breed and Spencer, and Cullen's inclusion, they have the team for the task.
"When (Jack's) not rucking he'll probably play a bit on half-back (alongside Dean Pound) or up forward. He can give us another target up there with Dwayne (Weetra)," Carroll said.
"We'll just see how we go but having another tall bloke gets the opposition thinking a bit, and hopefully we might be able to stretch them a little bit.
"Jack's been playing some representative footy so hopefully that stands him in good stead."
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