North Wagga forward Josh Campbell says Saints looking forward to Marrar challenge

Bombers star James Lawton has kicked 21 goals in his three games, former Saint Dayne Hancock can find a goal and midfielder-forward Zach Walgers finished the 2019 season with 53 goals.

The home side has Daniel Jordan (71 goals in his last season at Saints) spearheading their forward line. He's kicked nine so far, with Nathan Dennis providing 11.

And then there's Josh Campbell, who booted five goals in a best-on-ground effort at Coleambally last week after being recalled to the senior side.

"DJ's good, he gives us a tall forward to go to but we've also got myself and 'Doggy' (Dennis) and a few crumbers around too, so it doesn't make us so predictable. We're happy," Campbell said.

Marrar's three straight wins have set a high benchmark early this year but Campbell is confident North Wagga can get their own game going, including fluid ball movement.

"We're going pretty well. The boys seem to be gelling pretty well together and there's a good vibe around the club. The intensity's there, so we're pretty happy," he said.

Campbell, 27, is a rugby league junior who tried his hand at Aussie rules with Saints under 17s (who won a premiership) and found a love for the game.

But footy isn't always the priority. He missed their loss to East Wagga-Kooringal after he couldn't train a couple of weeks ago, and he wasn't part of the seniors for most of 2019 until he got serious... and kicked 16.4 in a reserve grade game against Temora.

"I've never been fully committed, always working, and going between the twos and ones," he said.

"But I ended up going up to the ones (in 2019) and we won the flag so it was happy days.

"It was unreal. I'd do anything to do that day over again. It was a good feeling."

That's obviously the goal again this year at North Wagga and Marrar are likely to have at least some say in their season.

The Bombers denied them a title on grand final day in 2018 but Saints ended the Bombers' hopes of a hat-trick of premierships when knocking them out in the 2019 preliminary final.

"I've got a lot of respect for Marrar, our footy club does." North Wagga coach Cayden Winter said.

"The last few years being at the pointy end of the ladder together we've created a bit of a rivalry. I think it'll be no different this weekend.

"They're probably the in-form team of the comp and we've had a bit of a scratchy start so we're looking forward to trying to match it with them and see where we're at."

Lawton has been a big factor in Marrar running up big margins in their wins and Winter says the Saints need to be accountable everywhere.

"I think pressure up the ground is going to be important," Winter said.

"If we can apply lots of pressure around the midfield it's going to stop them getting the ball down nicely to their gun forward which will hold us in good stead I think."

North Wagga are unchanged. The Bombers have Hugh Templeton back in.

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