The Macca has the Pies on the ropes at 3-30 after a first day where the batsmen struggled.

The Magpies are chasing Macquarie's 205. Brothers Josh (68) Ethan Hyde (49) made batting look easier that it should have on day one, and Macquarie is set to reap the benefits on day two.

Michael Pelley's team still needs a lot to go its way to claim maximum points from the match.

Gun Magpies batsmen Jesse Schmidt and Luke Jephcott are due back tomorrow. They should prove to be tough scalps.

"They've batted well against us in the past," Pelley said.

An outright win wasn't far from Pelley's mind this week, but he said bagging a first-innings victory was more important.

"Look, 17 wickets in a day is a lot," he said.

"You've just got to push as hard as you can."

The beauty of batting first, Pelley said, is taking advantage of that opportunity to have a crack at the opposition in the latter stages of day one, before freshening up the bowlers for another go on day two.

"If you bat well," he said.

Port Panthers Pirates have the first-innings win in the bag against Wauchope RSL in the other match of the round, but the game is still on a knife's edge.

The Pirates chased down RSL's 73 but were unable to post much of a lead. They scored just 84 in their innings.

Nick Bartlett bowled just the one ball in RSL's second dig before stumps were called due to bad light.

Both sides will be out to claim full points from the game at Oxley Oval.

"I think there will be an outright win, one way or another," RSL captain Brad Baxter, who won't play tomorrow, said.

"We've got nothing to lose, but both teams will be going for it."

He predicted scoring more than 100 would give his team a real shot at victory.

Matt Miller will take over the captaincy in Baxter's absence. Darren Bourke is also out on representative duties.