BIRIPI-South Taree coach, Shane Glass will finalise his squad for the next round of the East Coast Tribal Rugby League competition to be played today at Nambucca.
Co-leaders, Biripi and Ngaku Warriors, will meet first-up in what will be the match of the round.
Glass will check the availability of back rower, Jake Wheeler, who injured ribs a fortnight ago in the round played at Taree. Nathan Maher is also under a cloud due to a family commitment.
However, Glass said hard running Jai Simon should return for this weekend while he's also hoping playmaker Adrian Daley will be available.
"AD (Daley) hopes to be right but he might be working,'' Glass said.
The experienced Daley will slot into the halves to replace Maher if he's right.
Biripi has won three of four games played in the league so far. However, Ngaku downed Biripi in the opening match played at Smithtown.
"They were at full strength that day and we had three players out,'' Glass said.
"Everything has been going pretty well since then - we're leading to comp with Ngaku at the halfway point.''
Glass said securing a top two place and so avoiding the sudden death matches to decide the other places in the finals series will be paramount in the games ahead.
However, he added it was unlikely Taree would get to host a round of the semi-finals, despite the success of matches played at the Jack Neal Oval a fortnight ago.
"I think they'll play the semis at Smithtown or Kempsey, because they're more central,'' he explained.
