Lupton returned from a knee injury against Coleambally on Saturday only for the problem to flare up again.

The former Canberra Demon now faces another month on the sidelines.

"It's flared up again. It's unfortunate but it is what it is," TRYC co-coach Brad Aiken said.

"He's very classy. He was on one leg on the weekend, if he didn't play, we probably would have got beat to be honest.

"He's going to be exceptional for us when we can get him right and playing week in, week out and at the pointy end of the season when everyone's up and about and when it matters most, I guess."

Lupton's injury comes at the same time the Magpies will be without key forward and reigning best and fairest winner Dean Biermann for a month with a dislocated shoulder.

Aiken chooses to look at the positives.

"Him and Dean will hurt us a lot but we'll soon see where we're at and if we can play some good footy without them, it's only going to put us in a better position down the track," he said.

Biermann's absence against Charles Sturt University at Victoria Park on Saturday is likely to put more responsibility on fellow key forward James Roberts, who has kicked 23 goals from seven games in his first season at TRYC.

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Although Aiken revealed the Magpies plan to experiment in attack this week.

"We've got a few ideas this week, we might change it up a bit and maybe do something that people may not expect but I won't tell you too much about that," Aiken said.

"It may work, it may not. We've got a few little ideas up our sleeve. Dean's one player and we can't be relying on Dean to win us games every week.

"We just need a few more contributors on the scoreline from our forward line, even our small forwards but again, it's all a work in progress.

"We're getting over the line when we need to without guys tearing it apart but as I said, Heath and I have been talking about it a little bit this week, we've got a few different ideas for this week to create more avenues to goal but if it doesn't, we'll go to Plan B.

"Let's just say people probably won't be expecting it. It's a good time to try a few things."

The Magpies sit in fifth spot, with CSU just two points behind in sixth.

This round will complete the first half of the season and Aiken knows how important a win over the Bushpigs is.

"This week's a two game swing to be honest, if we lose, we fall back into the back, seventh, eighth, that sort of stuff, but if we win it could propel us to third," he said.

"It's testing material, they've been playing some good footy, they've beaten some good sides and they'll be full of confidence. They're kicking straight and conditions aren't going to be great this weekend so that's going to be really important for both sides to kick straight and get their hands dirty, I suppose."

Aiken said to sit third at the halfway mark, after an up and down start to the year, would be huge.

"The old cliche, if someone offered that to me at the start of the year, I would take it with both hands," he said.

"The comp's been really even so far, I reckon, even though Marrar and East Wagga are clear as first and second on top, I still don't think it's clear cut. No one's really got their one hand on the trophy.

"Obviously you play footy to play finals and stuff and we've missed out on a few opportunities probably where, we weren't unlucky, but didn't play good footy in the last quarter. We've wasted a few opportunities where we could have had a couple more wins but in saying that, if you give good sides opportunities to come back into the game, East Wagga, Temora, Barellan have all been good enough to get over the line.

"It's been probably no fault of our own, I suppose, we've just played the wrong brand of footy in the last quarter at times which has opened up opportunities for them and again, they were good enough to come back."

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