Charles Sturt University coach Travis Cohalan concedes Barellan may be aided by more than just a home ground advantage on Saturday.
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The Bushpigs will finally get the opportunity to back up their opening round win over Coleambally when they travel to Barellan to take on the undefeated Two Blues.
CSU's opening round game against Coleambally finished prematurely, six minutes out from three-quarter-time, due to a sickening knee injury to first-gamer John Bowie.
They have then been sidelined for their club bye, followed up by the Easter general bye.
Barellan, meantime, followed up their round one upset over The Rock-Yerong Creek with a draw at Coleambally.
Cohalan expects Barellan to carry a match-fitness advantage into Saturday.
"They've obviously put the runs on the board with two good performances obviously, a win and a draw," Cohalan said of Barellan.
"Also the fact is they've played eight quarters of footy for the year and we've played pretty much three. They definitely have some advantages heading into the game.
"I think it's a very even competition, much more even than last year. I think Barellan are always hard to beat at home and we'll be going over there expecting a very quality opponent and that we'll have to play our best footy to compete with them."
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Cohalan said the Bushpigs have done plenty of work on the training track over the past three weeks in a bid to overcome their lack of match fitness.
"I think we had a very hard pre-season and the majority of the boys had been training from November and we're lucky that we have a fairly young and fit team. I think that's one of our bigger assets," he said.
"We certainly tried to do a few heavier sessions, and build some running blocks into the last couple of weeks but the proof will be in the pudding on Saturday."
Cohalan expects connectivity to prove an issue as the new-look Bushpigs look to build into their campaign.
"We haven't had a chance to build much connectivity. Certainly connectivity with the way we want to move the ball forward and we're a very new team, a lot of blokes haven't played together at all," he said.
"We think we've done the required amount of work fitness wise but in terms of match fitness, that's a completely different question. It will be an interesting sort of test case.
"It could be an advantage, being fresher and not having had the level of footy that Barellan have but my suspicion would be that they've had the week off last week so I'd say they're pretty fresh as well now too. So I'd definitely think they might have an advantage, in terms of match fitness."
CSU will be without Bowie, who is out for the season, from the round one win, as well as assistant coach, and key forward, Jeff Lad, who is away on representative duties with the Australian Defence Force team.
Connor Kelly is a chance to return from injury, but the Bushpigs are yet to decide whether to rush him straight into the senior team, or bring him back through reserve grade.
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