In a horror day for the visitors at Temora, Gaynor injured his AC joint in the first quarter while Coate kicked three goals before going down with a knee injury in the 29-point loss.

The Jets hope it's a posterior cruciate ligament rather than the dreaded anterior cruciate rupture.

"He's going for scans for a possible ACL so we could lose him for the season as well," Avis said. "It was a bruising encounter. It's hurt more than just the ego."

They missed the experience of Mitch Haddrill (ankle) and Chris Bell (groin) and hope to have them back for East Wagga-Kooringal on Saturday.

But Gaynor and potentially Coate joining the long term injured list (alongside Ryan Quade, Henry Grinter and Toby Blissett) is a blow.

"Hamish went down very early so we lost a midfield rotation and it really tested our midfield depth," Avis said.

"We ran out of legs a bit but I think about the last quarter - we had 10 scoring shots to six, so we just didn't capitalise.

"So it's not panic stations with our midfield without Mitch in there and without Hamish now. But it's definitely going to make us have to come up with a plan come finals."

Max Harper is a potential inclusion. He played two games on a student permit in July in university holidays. It wasn't extended for last Saturday but with Wollongong locked down, he could yet finish the season with the Jets.

Temora opened with five unanswered goals in the first quarter and refused to surrender.

"They were up and about. They were definitely not playing like a last-placed team. We knew they were going to thrown the kitchen sink at us," Avis said.

"They were really not happy with last time (when the Jets thrashed Temora by 139 points) and they had a milestone game for one of their fellas (Chris Stacey's 250^th senior game) and Ladies Day so they had plenty of people around supporting.

"It was fantastic for them and they played a pretty decent standard of footy."

None of that takes away from the pain of a loss that cost the Jets a possible shot at a top-three finish.

But Avis said with two games before an elimination final - against The Rock-Yerong Creek or North Wagga - there's time to take some lessons out of the loss to the 'Roos.

"They played like a team who was rolling into finals and they pulled our pants down a bit, especially in the first quarter," Avis said.

"It's happened far enough out that we can address it. If next week was an elimination final, we'd be scratching our heads... with a couple of weeks, we can play with a few things to hopefully bring us back to that form we've seen in recent weeks."

Avis hasn't ruled out big changes, effectively calling on his players to stand up and show how much the club's return to finals means after five years in the wilderness.

"We probably found a few cracks and flaws. I'm also going to ask the question of a few blokes about commitment," Avis said.

"It's deep winter, it's cold... I'm going to ask for some commitment and we could potentially play with the side a lot. We'll be looking to bounce back (against EWK)."

Avis said his focus is firmly on the next few weeks of football. He and the Jets haven't weighed up the 2022 season at this stage.

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