Coleambally co-coach Luke Hillier says the Blues' burning desire to return to finals can help them overcome a horror away record in Saturday's sudden-death showdown at Charles Sturt University.
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It's virtually finals a week early in the Farrer League as the Bushpigs host Coleambally in a battle for fifth, while across town at Gumly, East Wagga-Kooringal and Temora play off for third.
CSU have stormed into finals contention from an unlikely position. With big wins against The Rock-Yerong Creek and the Northern Jets, they ended those teams' finals hopes and climbed into a position to do the same to Coleambally.
It would be a shattering blow for the Blues who are a win ahead but behind CSU on percentage after a 90-point hiding at Marrar.
After all, 'virtual finals' are no substitute for the real thing for a club determined not to miss three in a row.
"It's elimination finals from here on in for us," Hillier said.
"We'll approach it with the same mentality we have all year but we set a goal at the start of the year to play finals so that's what we're aiming for. We're not going to settle for anything else.
"I think after last season with the club finishing on the bottom, it was a big thing at the start of the year to be competitive again - that's what we talked about, getting back and playing finals again. That's what you play footy for and I think everyone - supporters and players - have all got that hunger and want to be playing finals.
"It'd be disappointing if we did let it slip."
At Coleambally in the middle of the season, the Blues enjoyed a 60-point win against CSU. But they know that won't count for much.
"That was probably one of our first more convincing wins but it will be a different story this time with them playing at home and by the looks of it they've been playing some pretty good footy of late too," Hillier said.
The Blues have won only one of seven games away from Coleambally this season and there was a 20-goal swing between their efforts against Marrar mid-year (winning by five goals) and last week (losing by 15 goals).
"Coly have always been pretty strong at home but if you can play well at home, there's no reason why you can't play well away. We don't really focus on that too much. If we play our best footy we can be competitive with most sides," Hillier said.
"We've just talked about playing consistent footy. We've played some really good games but sometimes we just let it slip.
"To lose on the weekend was pretty disappointing. They had a good start which is what we try and pride ourselves on but they got that fast start and once they got out they just kept kicking away and we couldn't peg it back."
Coleambally played finals from 2014 to 2016 before falling away in the last two seasons.
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