Northern Jets coach Josh Avis not looking too far ahead in the battle for fifth spot

A last-start loss to Barellan put a massive dent in the Jets' finals chances but they remain in the hunt, just two points outside of the top five with three rounds to play.

The Jets begin their final three rounds by hosting ladder leaders Marrar at Ardlethan on Saturday, and follow it up with a local derby against Temora and then a clash with East Wagga-Kooringal.

Avis is not putting too much energy into the scenarios around the final three weeks, instead choosing to focus on the immediate task at hand.

"It's just one week at a time for us at the moment," Avis said.

"We are of the belief, it seems to be hard getting it through to them at the moment, but we're of the belief we can compete and this year anything can happen.

"We've been not happy with, but happy with, how we've pushed some of those top sides, it's just been a shame we haven't followed it up with the lower ladder sides, but if we can get our head right and get our belief right that we're never out of it."

Making life tough for the Jets on Saturday will be a host of outs.

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Nate Doyle and Henry Grinter both injured their shoulders in the loss to Barellan and will miss on Saturday, while Brad McKinnon is a 50-50 chance as he looks to recover from an ankle injury.

Young gun Charlie McCormack is away with representative duties, while Adam Flagg has been ruled out for the remainder of the season with sciatic nerve issue.

The positives are the return of Matt Wallis, after missing the Barellan game due to unavailability, while Ben Johnstone should be back from illness.

Another reason for confidence is the Jets effort against Marrar earlier in the year, where they pushed the Bombers all the way before going down by nine points at Langtry Oval.

"It does give us confidence," Avis said.

"Obviously the year's taken it's toll and there's a few ins and outs from then but I think match-up wise, we probably match up a little bit better with Marrar than we do with East Wagga.

"East Wagga have got those bigger bodies, they play really physical, I'm not saying Marrar don't but it tends to suit the younger blokes a little bit better. In saying that, they're very clean and they do move the ball really, really well so it will be dependent on if we're right in the head and thinking defensively.

"We seem to be ok with the footy but it's what we do when we don't have the footy. If we're switched on, we can hopefully push them along a little bit."

Marrar haven't been at their best in recent weeks and it took the final kick of the day last Saturday to overcome Barellan.

But Avis isn't buying too much into that.

"They just find a way, that's why they're so successful, they find a way to win," he said.

"Sparks (Lenon) has got them so well drilled, they've got that culture of belief, no matter what happens, they will find a way to win. It's like they've got a real hate, a real dread of losing so they find a way.

"It's definitely a culture we're trying to, not replicate but take a little bit of."

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