North Wagga and The Rock-Yerong Creek concede there's early season pressure - even after just one round - heading into their respective home games this Saturday.
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While the Magpies host the Northern Jets after opening with a loss at Barellan, Saints welcome Marrar for the newest chapter in their modern rivalry.
They'll sweat on midfielder Kane Flack's ankle after he was a first quarter casualty in their upset loss to the Jets at Ariah Park, where North Wagga kicked more behinds (16) than the Jets had scoring shots (13).
"Obviously it was disappointing, we thought we were the better side on the day but got pipped on the post," Winter said, of the two point loss after the Jets found two goals and a behind in the final few minutes.
"The boys were hurting but we've got to move on quickly - we've got a big game this week against Marrar and we've created a pretty big rivalry with them over the last few years.
"It should be a cracking game."
North Wagga were the only team to beat Marrar last year - at McPherson Oval - and Winter said the adrenaline kicks in early for these contests, which has seen the two clubs produce some ding dong battles since the 2017 season.
"It's one you notice as soon as the draw comes out - where you're playing them and when - and it's definitely noticeable when you're playing the game that there is a bit more feeling in it, which is good to be a part of," Winter said.
It's one you notice as soon as the draw comes out and there is a bit more feeling in it.
- North Wagga coach Cayden Winter on Marrar showdown
Marrar's second-half comeback salvaged a draw against East Wagga-Kooringal last week but it means both teams are sweating on their first win of the season before the Easter long weekend.
North Wagga will have the experienced Kirk Hamblin and Josh Thompson coming in but Corey Watt is unavailable.
Winter said there were positives against the Jets, in particular the way they went into their forward line but they failed to take advantage of it, and forward Nathan Dennis' illustrating their headaches with his 0.6.
Poor kicking was part of TRYC's story at Barellan too. New forward James Roberts kicked 2.5 from eight shots at goal, although the 'Pies were pleased he was right in the game.
"Barellan were really good. Full credit to them," Russell said.
"We probably didn't play the way we wanted to, and if we had kicked straight.... we missed a lot of pretty gettable set shots. Bad kicking is bad footy so we've only really got ourselves to blame."
Roberts was one of six debutants and Russell himself a late, emergency inclusion.
TRYC will again be 'new look' at home to the Northern Jets with a very handy list of likely ins including Dean Biermann, Shannon Williams, Michael Cummins, Jordy Kemp, Joe Hancock, Liam Lupton and possibly Jesse Cool.
Russell concedes with their changes for week two and the desire to turn things around quickly against a team that upset them at home last year, the pressure is there already.
"I'd probably be lying if I said no. If you go 0-and-2, then it leads to more pressure and we acknowledge that we need to get back on track this week," he said.
"We won't shy away from the fact that we really do need to win... at the end of the day it's only round two but we'll be pretty keen to atone for last week.
"We were pretty disappointed."
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