Lawton was originally set to make his coaching debut in 2022 as co-coach alongside Shane Lenon until a troubled off-season in which he ran foul of the law.

The club has always said it is willing to support Lawton in getting his life on track.

After facing court on drugs charges, motor vehicle offences and being in possession of suspected stolen goods (including a motor vehicle), Lawton was ultimately given an eight month jail term. He was released on parole at the end of February.

He hasn't been training and won't feature early in the season but the Bombers haven't ruled out a return later.

"He's got more important things on his plate to get sorted than footy," Lenon said.

"We've given him a bit of space. If he can get himself sorted, he's definitely still in the planning. He certainly won't be playing early in the year but the ball is in his court. It's up to him."

Lawton was a class above last year; fit, healthy and with a focus on football doing him the world of good.

Marrar take on Griffith this weekend in their final pre-season run. Lenon was pleased with a big win against Coolamon reserves last week, including the first Bombers outings for Canberra based players Logan Gray, Billy Toy and Angus Kent.

"Those blokes are going to fit right in to our culture and buy in to what we're trying to do. They're really good fellas and good team players. They'll fit in perfectly really," Lenon said.

Temora also have a final warm-up when they head to Collingullie on Saturday. Their season starts in two weeks (with the bye first up) and the Kangaroos could yet unveil a huge inclusion.

New coach Russell Humphrey says former premiership player Tim McAuley has been training but is unable to commit fully due to plans to play in Cairns.

"We're hoping he will play some games for us during the year, but we're not really sure," Humphrey said.

McAuley played a handful of games in 2018, including dominating in a final, before going to Yarrawonga and then Berrigan.

Temora had a good win against Batemans Bay earlier this month with Humphrey pleased with their efforts to adopt a more patient style of footy, which will get another test run at Collingullie.

Temora's first game is against East Wagga Kooringal, who were led to a comfortable victory in their trial against Griffith by new signing Nico Sedgwick last week.

The former Hume League star kicked at least half a dozen goals and moved between forward and midfield.

"I've seen Nic play before. I know what I'm getting - he's very clever and skilful. It may take Nic a little while to adapt to our footy and our teammates to get to know him," EWK coach Matt Hard said.

Charles Sturt University had their second trial against a Riverina League outfit on Thursday night, going down to a Trent Castles-inspired Mangoplah-Cookardinia United-Eastlakes by nine goals.

"My preference is always to play higher quality opponents and test yourself against some of the better teams in the area... we wouldn't think, with the greatest of respect, that we'll be coming up against too many oppponents of the quality of Mangoplah and Turvey Park in our comp," Cohalan said.

"We were competitive with both but (Thursday) night against Mango, probably for two to three quarters and in patches throughout the game.

"But their fitness, skill level and structure probably told towards the end.

"Trent Castles kicked a bag, he was hard to stop."

CSU were without best and fairest Lachy Moore and forward Jacob Collingridge at Mangoplah as well as backman Connor Kelly who'll miss the first month with a knee injury suffered against Turvey Park.