Bridgewater will take a patient approach with its injured players as it closes in on the halfway mark of the Loddon Valley Football Netball League season.
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The Mean Machine have a disrupted schedule over the next month - the bye this week, followed by Mitiamo, followed by another bye and then Calivil United to complete the first half of the season.
While that fixture doesn't help in terms of continuity and momentum, it does give co-coaches Rick Ladson and Lachlan Sharp some flexibility with the return timline of their injured players.
Classy forward Andrew Collins was a late withdrawal from last Saturday's loss to Marong, while Lee Coghlan, Harry Conway, Bo Alexander and Nick Hall were among the senior players who also missed the match because of injuries.
The Mean Machine sit second on the ladder after six rounds, but they're likely to be fourth by the end of round seven.
They can't afford to drop a game to Mitiamo or Calivil United if they want to finish inside the top three come the end of the home and away season.
Despite that scenario, Ladson said he won't be rushing players back into the side unless they're 100 per cent fit.
"We'll see how a few of them are and decide which way we go,'' he said.
"If the senior boys aren't top notch then there'll be more opportunities for our younger boys to play, which is exciting for the club.
"We won't be taking any risks, it's just not worth it."
Bridgewater is 1-2 against the LVFNL's top teams - Marong, Pyramid Hill and BL-Serpentine - this year.
They lost to Marong and Pyramid Hill by wide margins, but proved too good for the Bears.
To finish inside the top three the Mean Machine will probably only have room to lose one game in the second half of the season.
One club with more margin for error than Bridgewater is Marong.
Last Saturday's 56-point win over Bridgewater gave the Panthers the full set of wins against the top teams in the opening half of the season.
They're two games and percentage clear on top of the ladder.
"It was a big game in then context of the ladder, so we've been able to get ourselves a little buffer at the top at the moment,'' Marong coach Linton Jacobs said of the Panthers' win.
"We're aware we have two tricky games coming up against MGYCW and Inglewood and we need to make sure we capitalise on our good start and get two wins to finish off the first half of the season.
"After those two games we can reassess where we're at."
Key forward Matt Riordan missed the Bridgewater game because of a hamstring injury and appears unlikely to play MGYCW this Saturday.
Number one ruckman Michael Bradbury continues to rehab his broken collarbone.
In Bradbury's absence the Panthers have handed Matt Willox more game time and the big man hasn't let his team-mates down.
Willox has been in the Panthers' best players three of the past four games.
In other LVFNL games this weekend, Pyramid Hill hosts Newbridge, BL-Serpentine travels to Mitiamo and Calivil United is at home to Inglewood.
