The Kangaroos, too, had hearts in mouths late when Matt Harpley hobbled off in the last quarter.

The key forward, who'd kicked 4.4 for the game, is five games into his return from a second knee reconstruction. He immediately allayed concerns of a serious injury but could be facing a week or two out.

"I've had a niggling medial issue in my good knee for the last few weeks and someone landed right across it, with about five minutes to go," Harpley said.

"I'll go and get scans. It's been giving me trouble for the last three to four weeks. Hopefully it's not too bad. But I'd rather do 10 medials than an ACL."

That's the concern for the Jets assistant coach though. Haddrill went down early in the first quarter and didn't return. He too will await the results of scans to determine whether he's going to need a reconstruction.

It was a brutal start for the Jets, for whom Haddrill has been a key figure in the middle, and the day didn't get any better, other than Temora failing to make them pay too heavily.

The Kangaroos kicked an almost unbelievable 24 behinds. Up by more than four goals at quarter-time, the home side added seven behinds in the second quarter and kicked 4.8 in the third.

By then, they'd had 31 scoring shots to seven but led by only eight goals. The Jets saved face with a four-goal final quarter, to go down by 38 points.

"They fought on well, they didn't give up at all," Harpley said.

"I think we used the ball pretty well coming in so that when we went forward, we were having a scoring shot. We might have missed too many but that was the difference. When they went forward, they weren't always getting a shot.

"We used it really well, it was coming in clean to the forward line and that makes a massive difference, having someone hit you laces out or landing it on your head."

Roos coach Jake Wooden had demanded a strong start, with Temora coming off their first loss. Having got that on Saturday, he's likely to order plenty of goalkicking practice this week.

Midfielder Rob Krause continued his big season for Temora with another superb game while defender Max Richardson kept former Temora forward Matt Wallis to two goals.

"Everyone played well. There were no real passengers today, which is what we were after - a good team effort," Harpley said, amid celebrations for his 25^th birthday but apprehension about his knee.

He's unlikely to play against Barellan next week but hopes to be back in a fortnight for North Wagga.

Coach Mitch Haddrill, young backman Mitch Doyle and Chris and Jacob Bell were the Jets' best. They're at home to Coleambally next week.

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