Bushpigs up for the 'challenge' as they look to end 12-year drought

The Bushpigs haven't beaten Marrar in close to 12 years, with their last win over the Bombers coming on June 23, 2012.

The Bombers will be looking to extend the 21-game winning streak over the Bushpigs when they host them at Langtry Oval on Saturday.

CSU have ticked a number of items off their bucket list under co-coach Travis Cohalan's reign, recording their first finals win in 22 years last year, with the Bombers the only club they are yet to beat.

While only five rounds into the new season, Saturday's clash shapes as an important one regardless of history with CSU in third spot and Marrar fourth, both with three wins.

Cohalan wasn't buying too much into the two club's recent history.

"To be completely honest with you, I wasn't aware of the last win against Marrar until just then so I doubt very much the boys would," Cohalan said.

"What I would say is that they love a challenge and love taking on the best clubs and the best players in the competition and Marrar's certainly been that I think certainly for the four years I've been at the Bushpigs and probably before that as well.

"The boys will just be excited for the opportunity to take on a really formidable club in terms of on field performance and off field as well."

CSU started this campaign with three wins before suffering their first loss of the year against East Wagga-Kooringal last Saturday.

Marrar have gone win-loss-win-loss-win through the opening five rounds but recorded a strong 63-point victory over North Wagga last Thursday night.

Cohalan is looking forward to another opportunity to learn exactly where his team are at.

"It certainly doesn't get any easier," he said.

"I mean, Marrar at Langtry Oval is if not the toughest, one of the toughest away games in the Farrer League. They're the only ones that have beaten East Wagga at all this season and are a team we've got a great deal of respect for, not just this season but over the last three or four years.

"We know we're going to be challenged again this week but it's a great opportunity to maybe rectify some of the things we didn't do so well against East Wagga against another quality opponent in Marrar this week so we look forward to the opportunity.

"We want to be playing against and competing with the best teams in the comp and there's no doubt the East Waggas and the Marrars and The Rocks of the world are right up the pointy end in that regard."

Cohalan believes the Bushpigs took plenty out of last week's 44-point loss to the Hawks.

"I think we'll get a lot of learnings out of that," he said.

"We spoke after the game that in time and throughout the season we're on a bit of a learning journey this season and we think we'll get better each and every week and I thought it was a really good learning experience.

"We were beaten up around the footy, we were outworked away from the footy, on the outside they worked harder and had a lot more uncontested marks than us, they had a lot more disposals than us. The beauty of the fact it was the game that was videoed was we got a good chance to have a look at it and some stats ran on it too, which we got back (Tuesday).

"It pretty much lined up with what Trent and I were thinking and saying after the game in the fact that we just didn't get our hands on the ball enough and when they did have it, we didn't work hard enough defensively on defensive transition and they were able to chain up with handball receives and uncontested marks and it just flowed from there.

"I think we were minus 10 in the end in inside 50s and without going into it too much, we were a long way down in overall disposals so you're not going to win too many games of football when you get beaten to the extent we did in terms of the amount of footy they had versus what we had."

CSU don't expect to get too many back for the trip to Marrar with Austin Harwood (knee), Jake Turner (unavailable) and Campbell Watt (overseas) all still a couple of weeks away.