CHARLES Sturt University co-coach Trent Cohalan says the Bushpigs will take confidence from recent history as they look to upset The Rock-Yerong Creek for a third straight year.
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The Bushpigs have upstaged the Magpies at Peter Hastie Oval for the past two seasons.
They surprised the eventual grand finalists in the final round of 2022 with a 43-point hiding of TRYC.
The Magpies then suffered their only defeat of last year's premiership campaign at Peter Hastie Oval, when falling to CSU by 20 points in round 15.
The two teams meet again on Saturday as the Farrer League top of the table clash, with the added spice of TRYC looking to bounce back from their first loss of the year last weekend against East Wagga-Kooringal.
Cohalan conceded they will take some confidence from their home record against the Magpies heading into Saturday's big game.
"Yeah I think with a young group you probably have to," Cohalan said.
"It's not something that we're going to harp on about because we're taking the approach this year that every game's one that we're going to have to fight tooth and nail for.
"Certainly against what's arguably the best side in the comp, regardless of the home record, they're a very different side this year, we're a very different side this year and the record's obviously a nice thing to look back on and take some confidence, especially for a young playing group that when we play well at home we can take it up to and win games against a good side like The Rock but it's not something Trav or I will be talking about before the game."
While EWK proved last Saturday that the Magpies are beatable, CSU don't necessarily believe the result was a good one for them.
Cohalan fears the Hawks might have 'poked the bear'.
"It's an interesting one," he said.
"That exact term, poke the bear, was what I thought about this morning when we planned training. Maybe if they're seven (wins) and zero (losses) going into our game, you might be able to spring an upset or catch them a little bit off guard but the moment that first siren goes on Saturday we know that they're going to be on.
"You only have to look at what happened to East Wagga the week before against North Wagga, North Wagga are a good side and we know they'll take some scalps this year, particularly with their energy early on and throughout the game, East Wagga obviously rebounded really strongly the following week and we're expecting that against The Rock so I'd say it's probably more in the poke the bear camp than a good time to catch them I think."
In a big blow to CSU, impressive first-year midfielder Ollie Wortley will miss the Magpies clash. He has returned home to help on the family farm and will play a couple of games for his home club while doing so.
Cohalan revealed the Bushpigs also have numerous sore individuals from last week's clash with Temora with Harry Wakefield, Sean Holgate, Hamish Warwick and Wayde Archibald all in some doubt heading into Thursday night's training.
The Bushpigs, fresh from winning their first final in 22 years last season, are enjoying their continued rise and love being part of big games like Saturday's top of the table clash.
"Last year to play in a couple of big games certainly at the end of the year with the East Wagga final and the Jets final, where we obviously know the result of that, they're obviously big games for the boys and as a pretty young developing list still it's obviously exciting for those guys to get exposed to the opportunity to play against the best I suppose," Cohalan said.
"We've come up against some pretty good sides but regardless of recent results I think everyone still thinks The Rock's the team to beat.
"We certainly appreciate the opportunity to play in a big game against them."
Cohalan said there will be a couple of key focuses in order to get over TRYC again.
"Making our ground big, being a younger, quicker side and trying to get the ball into space is how we've got over them in the past," he said.
"Out of the midfield, and it's something we've put a focus on the last few weeks, minimises being front-ended. Marrar did it to us a few times out there where they were able to link up out the front, even Coly, with their ruck dominance, were able to front-end us from stoppages, which was something we put a huge focus on last week against Temora and we didn't get front-ended once, which is a huge effort.
"The reason I mention that is you think of Curtis Steele bounding out of a stoppage and having a 100-metre play so definitely that, trying to nullify that midfield dominance that they can sometimes get and that burst away from the stoppage is something we'll put a focus on.
"We play our best footy when we bring immense energy and play the brand of footy that we want to play, defending super hard and making every opposition earn every single kick.
"We know The Rock like to maintain the footy so I guess it's on us to try and take away as many options from them to be able to move it freely throughout the game and put pressure on them going forward so they can't get it in clean to (James) Roberts and (Dean) Bierman and some other guys who are quite dangerous for them."
